A PENSIONER has today thanked The Evening Star for helping him to get a hearing aid quicker.However he has insisted he will still set up a website as planned to help others vent their anger over long waiting lists for hearing aids.

A PENSIONER has today thanked The Evening Star for helping him to get a hearing aid quicker.

However he has insisted he will still set up a website as planned to help others vent their anger over long waiting lists for hearing aids.

Bob Wood, of Ganges Lane, in Shotley Gate, had been waiting for 72 weeks for a hearing aid and was told it would be another two months before he could get one.

But just four days after the article appeared in the Star, Mr Wood was contacted by Ipswich Hospital and told his new digital hearing aid was ready to be picked up.

The 70-year-old said: “It is a miracle. I received a telephone call from Ipswich Hospital to inform me that my hearing aid is available and I could pick it up.

“Now I am wondering about all the other people waiting up to two years and longer for theirs to become available.

“You can't possibly write an article on each one so how will it look for them? It is too much of a coincidence that I got the hearing aid just after the article. There must be people out there that have been waiting longer than myself and it still does not cover up the sheer incompetence of the Primary Care Trust managers.”

Suffolk Primary Care Trust is pledging to reduce the waiting time for a hearing aid from 68 weeks to 18 weeks with an investment of £470,000 before the end of March.

The PCT said they were aware of some delays with people receiving hearing aids in Suffolk and added that plans were in place to improve this situation.

Have you suffered similar problems? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.