I have had my Phonak NHS aids for over a month now. At least they have proved that I can get pretty good speech hearing which the aids I bought at SpecSavers never did. The sound was so poor that I couldn't even recognise the music of my national anthem, which I am now ablate do.
The downside is the ear moulds. They make my ears so sore. I understand that for some people, ear moulds are better, depending on the loss of hearing.. Our trust only uses ear moulds. When I go for my first check-up next month, I will ask the audiologist if she thinks I could buy aids with buds, RIC. It is a long time since I last heard voices that sound natural so I am really grateful to the NHS for doing such a good job.