On December 18th 2013, Ireland’s health minister, James Reilly, delivered one of the best possible Christmas presents the Sound Advice team could have received.
His health-service plan for 2014 listed €3.22 million to develop pediatric services for bilateral cochlear implants at the national cochlear implant centre at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.
Bilateral Pediatric Implants Funded From July 2014
Essentially, the Government’s aim is to introduce a new bilateral cochlear implant service from 2014, to benefit children aged under 18 in Ireland awaiting a second implant and simultaneous implantation for babies who are born profoundly deaf from now.
The specific points, as detailed in the service plan:
- Page 29: Provide a service to undertake bilateral cochlear implants for children under 18 years old (sequential and simultaneous implants). (€3.22m and 14.5 WTEs)
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Page 36:”Implement the bilateral simultaneous and sequential cochlear implant programme in collaboration with acute services.”
Beaumont Hospital’s ongoing dialogue with the HSE
Dr Laura Viani, lead ENT consultant at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital, advised IrishHealth.com:
“The [health officials] are certainly listening to us and we are all working together to progress this for next year so we can achieve the goal of offering bilateral cochlear implants to severely or profoundly deaf patients who fulfil the suitability criteria.”
Surgeries shared by Beaumont Hospital & Temple Street:
Read: Giving children the gift of hearing
A question arose whether the €3.22 million in HSE funding for bilateral implants applies to one hundred or two hundred children, but a clarification is that the HSE’s aim each year is to increase funding, for more surgeries.
Read: HSE to fund bilateral cochlear implants for 100 children
Happy New Ear 2014, to everyone who worked on this:
What a result for everyone who pulled together on this year-long campaign, from phone calls, to emails, to letter-writing and lobbying local politicians, travelling to Dublin from the provinces, doing media interviews, and researching and educating on the key issues that needed conveying.
Thank you, Minister Reilly, from the bottom of our hearts.
More Reading
- ‘Happy New Ear’ To The HSE, From A Parent Group
- A Sound Case For Bilateral Cochlear Implants
- Bilateral Implants Wait List Concerns Irish Parents
- Families To Write To The Health Minister On Implants
- Newborn Hearing Tests And AVT Give A Solid Start
- Early Implants Best For Baby’s Language Progress
- The Sky’s The Limit, When Parents Are Informed
- Long-Term Benefits of Smarter Cochlear Implants
- Bilateral Cochlear Implants – Hearing With Two Ears
