ASSESSMENT OF A DIRECT REFERRAL HEARING-AID CLINIC

A direct referral hearing aid clinic (DRHAC) was set up at the Manor H ospital, Walsall, in which patient management was undertaken by an exp erienced senior medical technical officer in audiology and re-evaluate d by an otolaryngologist. After 2 years of offering the service, we au dited our experience which is presented in part one of this article. W e attempted to assess the referral protocol in part two of the article . During the 2 years, general practitioners referred 458 first-time he aring aid users to the DRHAC. Of these, 91.3% were satisfactorily mana ged by the audiology department, although only 241 (52.6%) fitted the guidelines developed by the liaison group of the Technicians, Therapis ts and Scientists in Audiology (TTSA), a lower percentage than expecte d by the liaison group. All patients who failed to fulfil the TTSA gui delines at the DRHAC were further studied. This revealed that none of the TTSA criteria could be disregarded, but that relying on the experi ence of the general practitioner and audiologist is an appropriate met hod for excluding those patients requiring otolaryngological evaluatio n. It also indicated that the age of 60 yeats is a suitable limit for patient referrals.