Audiology
Audiology is a specialty providing diagnosis and management of patients with hearing and balance disorders. This includes tinnitus, auditory processing disorders and the provision of specialist hearing aids, such as bone anchored hearing aids. The team of audiologists and consultant audiological physician provide an integrated service. Medway Maritime Hospital sees patients of all ages and accepts referrals from GPs and consultants within the hospital.
The majority of the service is provided at Medway Maritme Hospital, which acts as the main centre for ear, nose and throat (ENT) services. However, the department provides support for the peripheral sites based at:
- Darent Valley Hospital
- Gravesend Community Hospital
- Sheppey Community Hospital
- Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital
The audiology service:
- supports the paediatric hearing service and has a distraction room to provide hearing tests for children
- works in partnership with Hi Kent (a charitable organisation) by providing a resource centre for clients to try out new equipment
- provides a routine service for the fitting of digital hearing aids
- centre for ordering and storage of hearing aids for peripheral sites
- acts as a staff base and management centre for audiology services
- provides audiology support for all ENT clinics in peripheral sites
- acts as a centre for hearing therapy provision, managing patients with complex conditions including tinnitus (perception of noise), hyperacusis (over-sensitivity to certain frequency ranges of sound) and auditory processing disorders.
Audiology clinics run from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday.
The team
The audiology team consists of:
- head of audiology
- deputy head of audiology
- hearing therapists
- audiologists
- assistant audiology practitioners