Hearing Implant Centre referrals

Referral contacts

• Hearing implant centre
  ENT department
  2^nd floor, Lambeth Wing
  St Thomas' Hospital
  Westminster Bridge Road
  London SE1 7EH

  For information about children's referrals, please see the Evelina London Children's Healthcare website.

• Reception: 020 7188 6245 

  Referrals for all hearing implants: gst-tr.hearingimplants@gstt.nhs.uk

Who can refer

Referrals are considered from:

• ENT consultants
• audiological physicians
• scientists and technicians
• paediatricians
• speech and language therapists
• teachers of the deaf
• GPs.

To proceed with funding, a medical referral is required.

How to refer

To send a referral or request specialist information, please email us using the email address at the top of this page

Adult referral form

• Adult cochlear implant referral form (Word 130Kb)

Paediatric referral forms

• Paediatric cochlear implant assessment referral form (Word 142Kb)
• Paediatric baha assessment referral form (Word 58Kb)

Referral criteria

Hearing implant referral criteriaCochlear implant (CI)

• pure tone average >70dBHL at .5, 1, 2, 4kHz or > 90dBHL at 2 and 4 kHz
• limited benefit from wearing hearing aids
• children: do not wait for speech / language delay
• congenital, acquired, progressive, sudden onset.

Auditory brainstem implant (ABI)

• Hearing implant referral criteriaunsuitable for CI
• non-neurofibromatosis type 2
• cochlear nerve aplasia
• cochlear obliteration (ostosclerosis, ossification)
• cochlear nerve avulasion (skull base fracture).

Electric-acoustic stimulation (EAS)

• Hearing implant referral criteriaair conduction (AC) thresholds within shaded area
• stable sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL)
• no air-borne gap >15dBHL
• limited benefit from hearing aids
• no external ear contraindications to wearing an earmould.

Middle ear implant (MEI)

• Hearing implant referral criteriaSNHL (AC thresholds within orange shaded area) or mixed/CHL (BC thresholds within brown outline)
• stable hearing loss
• inability to wear conventional hearing aids due to medical reasons (eg chronic otitis media, psoriasis, congenital malformations of ear canal/pinna, allergies, exostoses, furunculosis, etc)
• no retrocochlear or central auditory 

Bone conduction implants (BCI)

• Hearing implant referral criteriabone conduction thresholds within green area
• inability to wear conventional hearing aids (eg chronic otitis media or otitis externa, congenital malformations, otosclerosis, recurrent ear infections due to hearing aid usage)
• unilateral profound SNHL, with normal BC thresholds in the better hearing ear.