Interview: In the fast lane

Hopping into a borrowed Jag (his Mini is in for its MOT) Billy Mager looks every inch the glamorous media player and boy about town. He's riding high after a stretch on BBC1's Watchdog as assistant producer, and his latest job is on See Hear, the BBC's magazine programme for deaf viewers.

Television is a highly competitive and insecure business. Impressively, Billy has just been promoted to producer and given a permanent contract,­ a rare achievement in the television world for someone so young (Billy is 29), let alone someone who was born profoundly deaf. There is nothing in television that should exclude deaf producers, but prejudices do persist.
One film editor told him: "TV is such an audio-visual medium, that I can't understand how you've made it this far."

Product review: Silent night

Chris Bowden looks at tinnitus relaxers that could help you enjoy a peaceful, festive night.

Christmas is a fun, family time of the year but some people find that the stress of the festive season, the amount of work involved in preparing for the big day and the number of social occasions involved can make it a bad time for their tinnitus. When it's over, most of us would benefit from a bit of post-festivity relaxation. With this in mind, we put the latest tinnitus relaxation products through their paces.

There aren't many products currently available in the UK specifically designed for, or marketed to, people with tinnitus. So for this review we looked at almost every tinnitus relaxation product we could. Typically, these are small units that produce a range of soothing sounds that you can focus on instead of your tinnitus.

Hearing aids: All you want for Xmas?

You've told us what you want from hearing aids ­and when. Angela King gives an update on the latest developments.

Waiting times in England

Although there are no national Department of Health (DH) data on waiting times for hearing aids, RNID has evidence that ­despite improvements in some parts of the country­ some people are still waiting between one and two years between being referred by their GP and having their first hearing aids fitted. This is totally unacceptable. There are also long waits for later review of hearing aid fittings.

Government action

The Minister for Care Services, in his introduction to the DH report Improving Access to Audiology Services in England (March 2007), said, "In short, no local health system will be credible in claiming success on 18 weeks [the government's referral to treatment target] if it does not make excellent progress in tackling long waiting times affecting large numbers of its local population including those waits that are technically outside the target."