The St Thomas' Hearing Implant Centre provides a full range of hearing implants for children and adults with hearing loss.
About us
Our adult cochlear implant programme started in 1991 with the first adult cochlear implant performed in 1993. Our children's service started two years later.
By 1998, our service developed into our all-inclusive Hearing Implant Centre, including not only cochlear implants (CI) but also bone conduction implants (BCIs), middle ear implants (MEI) and auditory brain stem implants (ABI).
We were one of the first European centres to offer hearing preservation surgery for cochlear implant patients and we are the largest hearing implant centre in London and the south east of England.
The centre was established by internationally renowned surgeon, Mr Alec Fitzgerald O'Connor. We now have four internationally renowned surgeons working with an established 'multidisciplinary' hearing implant team, made up of a range of different healthcare professionals.
What we offer
Comprehensive service
Providing diagnosis, assessment for hearing and balance, hearing aid fittings, hearing implants and rehabilitation.
Our children's team offers regular outreach visits to a child's home or school. The team is also very experienced in working with children and adults with additional needs.
We also provide a specialist clinic for children and adults with external ear malformations and hearing loss. This is one of the few of its kind in the country.
Every type of implant, for any type and severity of hearing loss
Offering the latest implants from all major implant companies, including:
One team providing care for life
Our integrated children's and adult implant service makes sure our young patients have a smooth transition from children's to adult services.
First rate care and follow up
Providing family support throughout assessment and post operation (including home visits), regular upgrades of external implant equipment and overnight accommodation for families who live far away.
State of the art facilities
Including a bilateral test suite with 'crescent of sound speech perception testing equipment' to help us assess our patients.
World-leading expertise
Our team of hearing implant surgeons pioneer hearing preservation techniques in surgery. We have extensive experience with every implant device and hearing aid and more experience with middle ear implants than anywhere else in the UK. The hardest to treat cases are often referred here from all over the UK.
What our patients say...
"After the operation I felt more alive and happy because I could hear better. I didn't like to wear my old hearing aid, but I wear my new one all day. Sometimes I forget I'm wearing it! Everyone at school has been amazed – at first they though it was a hair clip! I love it."
Kiron Aleya Rashid, young MEI user.
"We can't speak highly enough of the cochlear implant team. From the first appointment, we've felt well informed and cared for at every stage. We've particularly appreciated having the same lead audiologist and speech and language therapist since the beginning as it means they have a deep understanding of our son's history and needs."
Charlotte Kuhn, mother of Nathaniel, a cochlear implant user
"Thomas wasn't a straightforward case for the cochlear implant team. There were numerous discussions and assessments before we agreed to go ahead. All of this was handled with careful thought and sensitivity towards Thomas and us as a family, which made the whole journey much easier for us to understand and process"
Georgina Melville-Ross, mother of Thomas, a cochlear implant patient