One of things that has changed since Manutopea went U.D.I in terms of health provision- in essence the social care & health budgets have been combined in an attempt to stop repetition of some of the bureaucracy.
This has resulted things like audiology being out sourced to the private sector. Something which if you think about makes quite a bit of sense. Anyway when I went I was seen by a firm of opticians who also do hearing tests etc. Prior to this it had been in an NHS centre come library. My existing aids, NHS ones were replaced, but there were others available. The wait was about three to four weeks from requesting it so quite fast.