Digital Hearing Aids for Railway StaffCurrent medical standards place a high reliance on colour vision and hearing for safety critical staff. This is to ensure their own safety when on the operational railway, and to ensure that they are able to perform their duties safely. Unfortunately, this has meant that rail staff who no longer meet the hearing standard have had to move jobs - bad news for both the employee and employer (who has spent a lot of money getting them trained). Over recent years, digital hearing aids have become increasingly sophisticated and now offer a wide range of functions and features. The hope is that safety critical staff who do not meet the current hearing standard unaided might, if fitted with a suitable digital hearing aid, be able to continue working safely. The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) has appointed Risk Solutions to lead a review of the latest technology and decide whether it would allow safety critical staff to continue in their current roles. The project involves a review of the technology and testing methods now available and deciding whether additional safety measures would be needed to guard against the possibility of the hearing aid malfunctioning at a critical time. To test the feasibility of the proposed arrangements, a pilot study will then gather evidence from across the industry before we make our final recommendations. |
