Audiological Medicine (ICAN)

Who's it for?

This service is for children aged 0 – 18 years who are born deaf or become deaf early in life. A referral to our service can be made by your child’s audiologist. We also accept referrals from other hearing service professionals who may have concerns related to your child’s hearing loss where the cause may have already been known and investigated in the past. These may include teachers of the deaf, speech and language therapists and ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctors. There are many reasons why a child can be born deaf or becomes deaf early in life. The purpose of our clinic is to try and identify a cause for your child’s permanent hearing loss. In the majority of cases, we may not always be able to identify a cause despite appropriate investigations.

What we offer?

The clinic will be delivered by community paediatricians (doctors) at three sites - Wortley Beck Health Centre, Reginald Centre and  St George’s Centre. You will receive a letter to say that we have accepted a referral for your child. If you wish for your child to be seen please contact us on the number provided to confirm this. We will aim to see your child within 12 weeks of referral but on occasions you may need to wait longer.

What happens in the clinic?

• The doctor will conduct a medical review which includes detailed medical, developmental, family and social history, as well as a thorough clinical examination.
• Your child’s physical health and developmental needs are assessed.
• We will signpost your child to the appropriate services if necessary.
• Once all investigations are completed and there are no other medical concerns, your child will be discharged.

What investigations are offered?

The doctor will discuss in detail and offer your child the appropriate tests which are based on the outcomes of the consultation, the threshold and type of hearing loss (i.e. conductive, sensory-neural or mixed).

The investigations that may be offered are:

• Urine and blood tests (genetic or infection screen)
• Ophthalmology (eye) assessment
• Family audiograms (hearing check)
• Urine dipstick
• Imaging (e.g. MRI or CT scans) of the ear structures

We may be able to carry out blood and urine tests on the same day if the clinic nurse is available to do this.

Appointments

We appreciate that not all appointment offers are convenient. If this is the case, please contact our ICAN Administration Team on 0113 843 3620 if you need to rearrange an appointment.

Families who cancel their child’s appointment will be offered another appointment and time. Patients who cancel two consecutive appointments will be discharged from our service.

Families who do not attend their appointment, giving no prior notice, will be put back on the waiting list and be given one further offer of an appointment before being discharged from our service.

Referrals 

If you would like further information, please see the links below from the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) website or speak to your child’s audiologist.

www.ndcs.org.uk/causesofdeafness

www.ndcs.org.uk/our-services

Please view the ICAN referrals page. 

Help us get it right

If you have a complaint, concern, comment or compliment please let us know by speaking to a member of our staff. We learn from your feedback and use the information to improve and develop our services.

If you would like to talk to someone outside the service contact the Patient Experience Team on 0113 220 8585, Monday to Friday 9.30am to 4.30pm or email lch.pet@nhs.net

• Contact