WAITING times for hearing-aid fittings in the New Forest have been reduced but patients are still waiting up to six times longer than the government's target for next year.

New Forset Primary Care Trust has admitted that in March this year, patients in the New Forest could wait a maximum of 109 weeks for hearing assessment and hearing-aid fittings.

According to the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists - the professional voice and education body for hearing-aid dispensers - the NHS is lagging behind the private sector, which takes just a matter of days to supply hearing aids.

The government has set a target of a 13-week wait by March 2007.

Keith Douglas, director of planning and service redesign at New Forest PCT, said: "This was obviously unacceptable, so improving access to the service by reducing the waiting times has been a key priority for the PCT this year.

"We have been working closely with Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust to provide an additional full-time audiologist to offer more sessions, including some appointments in the evenings.

"As a result, the maximum waiting times in the New Forest have fallen by 23 weeks and we now have 600 fewer people waiting for hearing assessment and hearing-aid fitting.

"We have plans in place to ensure that waiting times will continue to fall to meet the government's target of 13 weeks by March of next year."

Hearing-aid retailer The Hearing Company audiologist Debra Risbey, who operates in the New Forest, said: "Unfortunately the new figures come as no surprise.

"Many of our customers turned to The Hearing Company having already experienced some unacceptable delays in the NHS system."

The Hearing Company has been lobbying the government for years to increase the number of private partnerships with the NHS, which it says will help resolve the crisis.

The BSHAA surveyed NHS hospitals across the country to see how long they were taking to supply hearing aids.