Audiology

About

Our audiology service, often referred to as our hearing and balance service, aims to meet the communication needs of the community and address balance and hearing problems.

We deliver a compassionate service for people, integrating cutting edge technology with a personal and holistic approach in adult audiology.

We are able to see patients in community settings to offer care closer to home. If a patient is house-bound or in any of the elderly care homes (Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Chiswick and parts of Ealing) we are able to offer a home visit for diagnosis and treatment.

Specialist care offered includes:

• adult diagnostic audiology and rehabilitation
• counselling on acceptance of hearing loss and advice on improving communication skills
• direct-access referrals for hearing assessment from GPs
• hearing therapy, including tinnitus retraining therapy
• vestibular diagnostics and rehabilitation
• community services including domiciliary visits and community audiology lead clinics
• provision of digital hearing aids

Conditions and treatments

• Hearing loss: Our specialist one-to-one counselling supports all aspects of adaptation to hearing loss, including:
  • auditory training to boost recognition of speech sounds with hearing loss or a new hearing aid
  • training in lip reading, specialist equipment for home, work or study and onward referral where necessary

• Tinnitus: We provide specialist one-to-one counselling to support your use of tinnitus retraining therapy, which may include sound enrichment. We can also advise you on practical strategies to manage the condition and any stress associated with it.
• Obscure auditory dysfunction (OAD) and central auditory processing disorder (APD)
  We provide specialist testing and advice for individuals with normal hearing, who present with difficulties hearing speech (particularly in noise).
• Hearing aid service
  • Digital hearing aid fittings for patients with hearing impairment 
  • Bone conduction hearing devices (BCHD) at Charing Cross Hospital: Patients who are suitable for this device are offered a full assessment and counselling. This is a type of bone conduction hearing aid that requires a surgical implant
• Vestibular rehabilitation including:
  • comprehensive rehabilitation and counselling 
  • exercise programmes to reduce movement triggers (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo — BPPV) using Cawthorne Cooksey and other exercise programmes 
  • visual vertigo training using specialist equipment
• Full hearing assessment including pure tone audiometry and tympanometry and electrophysiological investigations

Repair service

We now provide a postal repair and battery service. Patients can request batteries or tubing by phone or email. If your hearing aids are faulty and require repair or replacement you can send them to us by post (we recommend using registered post for this) – we will then repair your hearing aid(s) and send them back to you by registered post.

We have replaced the walk-in hearing aid repair and maintenance service with a booked repair service.
You may have received notification of this by text message. We hope that this change will improve the service for all patients, ensuring there are no excessive waiting times and enhancing infection control processes.

Patients can book repair appointments by telephone or email:

• for repair appointments at Charing Cross call 0203 311 1021
• for repair appointments at St Mary Abbots Hearing Aid Centre call 0203 315 6011
• email address for both sites: audiology.imperial@nhs.net

There will be no change to the service at St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington as this has always operated as a booked repair service.

• for repair appointments at St Marys Hospital call 020 3312 1015
• email address for St Mary’s site: ichc-tr.imperialaudiologystmarys@nhs.net 

Virtual appointments

We may offer more telephone consultations and introduce video consultation appointments where this is appropriate and accessible.

Micro-suction – wax removal

We have suspended our micro-suction wax removal service.

Face-to-face appointments

If you are offered a face-to-face appointment, please let us know in advance if you have any access requirements or need interpreting or chaperone services.

We would appreciate if you could help us by:

• Attending appointments as close to your appointment time as possible to avoid over-crowding in the waiting room
• Avoid attending if you feel unwell
• Letting us know if you are unable to attend your appointment

Additional information

Imperial Private Healthcare

We also offer private patient treatment at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

All funds generated by Imperial Private Healthcare are reinvested in the NHS Trust, and are used to support and enhance both NHS and private clinical services for the benefit of all our patients.

For more information, please visit audiology on the Imperial Private Healthcare website.

Education

We offer work experience, so please contact the department if you are interested. Other work placements are arranged as part of university courses.

Volunteering opportunities

We welcome volunteers through Imperial Health Charity. Our volunteers support hearing aid users with maintaining their hearing aids. If you are interested in becoming a hearing loss support volunteer then please contact us.

Further online resources

• Hearing link
• Action on hearing loss
• British tinnitus association