Here’s some good news for North Islanders who wear hearing aids: no more two-hour drive for a five-minute appointment! The owners of Campbell River Hearing Clinic have opened a satellite office in Port McNeill that’s fully equipped to provide complete hearing care.
“Most appointments for maintenance, adjustments and other repairs just take a few minutes, but our clients up Island have had to travel all the way to Campbell River for them,” says Martin Jurek, who owns the clinic with his wife Jana. “So now Campbell River is coming to them – well, the hearing clinic is at least.”
The nature of hearing aids — electronic devices operating in a less than ideal environment — requires that they be cleaned, maintained and checked at least a couple of times each year to ensure they’re functioning optimally. Additionally, when a person gets a new device, it can take several visits to get it fitted and customized to the user’s preferences. Then, as a person’s hearing changes over time, the devices occasionally need to be adjusted.
The Jureks include all of these follow-up appointments in the cost of their hearing aids and, for a limited time, are even extending that offer to wearers who purchased their devices elsewhere.
“If you purchased your hearing aids before the end of 2012, we’ll provide any service and warranty repairs for no charge,” explains Jurek. “We’ll honour the fact that you’ve already paid someone else for that ongoing service in the initial cost of your hearing aids.”
Though a fee will apply for such services on devices purchased elsewhere after December 2012, Jurek reminds wearers that Campbell River Hearing Clinic is an approved service provider for WorkSafe BC, DVA, Indian Affairs and others. Anyone whose hearing aids are covered through one of these organizations is always entitled to free service, regardless of where they purchased their devices.
In addition to maintenance service, Campbell River Hearing Clinic’s new Port McNeill location allows for complete hearing testing. (One in 10 Canadians is living with some degree of hearing loss, says Jurek, and 80 per cent of them don’t even know it.) The office is fully equipped and carries the latest digital hearing aids, as well as accessories, batteries and other supplies.
The Jureks serve clients from their Port McNeill office every two weeks. For a schedule of when the office is open, visit www.tohear.ca/port-mcneill or call toll-free 1-855-914-3200.