France in Focus

OH has a letter to see an ORL for his deteriorating hearing. No appointments available locally or in surrounding departments. Not one ORL does appointments on Doctolib - you have to phone. Which is ironic if you can’t hear.

It is of course possible to get hearing aids without using the secu to part fund them. Budget for 2 to 4000 an ear.

I went into an optician/audiology centre today and asked them what I could do as there are no ORL appts anywhere. Oh don’t worry they said. We do the hearing test and then a téléconsultation with an ORL. Oh I said where are they? Paris.
I think the whole hearing aid thing is a right old rip off.

You might do better at Specsavers if you happen to be in UK?

I had mine checked within days of the doctor recommending it. Then Audilab, hearing aids obtained, basically free if you have a mutual and go for the standard aids. I opted for more than basic as I have damaged eardrum and tinnitus. Well pleased and very happy to say no problems. I tried Specsavers before the current options were offered for financial aid and very disappointed. Heavy sales technique and hellishly expensive.
This is Correze, no problems here!

OH went to a company called Audition Santé - available in 47. We just walked into their offices and asked for an appointment - IIRC 10 days later.

They did a test which confirmed a significant loss of hearing and told us if we went to our MT with the results, she could issue an script/ordinance which we could take back to them and they would trigger secu and our mutuelle. Still a significant contribution from our side though.

tagh wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2024 8:53 pm You might do better at Specsavers if you happen to be in UK?

I had a quick google and looked at Boots. Same price point as here. If you get them in the UK and then have probs would a French service provider be interested? I doubt it

exile wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2024 10:46 pm OH went to a company called Audition Santé - available in 47. We just walked into their offices and asked for an appointment - IIRC 10 days later.

They did a test which confirmed a significant loss of hearing and told us if we went to our MT with the results, she could issue an script/ordinance which we could take back to them and they would trigger secu and our mutuelle. Still a significant contribution from our side though.

If your MT is qualified for hearing diagnosis, they can issue a prescription but as I understand it otherwise an ORL must do it and at the moment the only way to get an ORL appointment in 47 is to have something horrible that requires les urgences. Both the Clinique and the public hospital at Agen have refused to take on new clients for the foreseeable future and all the independent ORLs have no availability.

I told my doc I had hearing trouble, (he asked, which ear. I said . what?) he wrote me an ordonance just like that. (this is true).

Hi Headers, you could try Dr Jankovski in Bergerac. 0553731668. It's a bit of a trek but he's very good and doesn't appear to have commercial/vested interests as so many medical practitioners here obviously do. As for the actual hearing aids, it's all still a colossal rip-off as the State-funded 'free' ones are mostly old stock and, IME, still use batteries rather than being rechargeable. Feel free to PM me if you want any more relatively local info

Headers wrote: ↑Wed Dec 11, 2024 7:19 am

exile wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2024 10:46 pm OH went to a company called Audition Santé - available in 47. We just walked into their offices and asked for an appointment - IIRC 10 days later.

They did a test which confirmed a significant loss of hearing and told us if we went to our MT with the results, she could issue an script/ordinance which we could take back to them and they would trigger secu and our mutuelle. Still a significant contribution from our side though.

If your MT is qualified for hearing diagnosis, they can issue a prescription but as I understand it otherwise an ORL must do it and at the moment the only way to get an ORL appointment in 47 is to have something horrible that requires les urgences. Both the Clinique and the public hospital at Agen have refused to take on new clients for the foreseeable future and all the independent ORLs have no availability.

I doubt that our MT is at all qualified for hearing diagnosis but she was happy to accept the Audition Santé diagnosis of 60% loss of hearing.
Have you asked your MT if they would accept such a diagnosis? The trouble of course is just because some MTs will issue an ordinance does not mean that all will nor perhaps that CPAM will accept it. Such is France - and probably other places as well.

i believe there to be some price gouging in that some hearing aids cost 2 to 3000€ yet one can buy a pair of Bluetooth connected ear buds along with charging box inc lcd display for 26€