Special funding to clear cochlear implant waiting lists

Queensland children and adults awaiting a cochlear implant will have their procedure fast-tracked thanks to a 2013-2014 budget allocation announced today by Health Minister Lawrence Springborg.

Mr Springborg visited a Brisbane audiology clinic to meet cochlear recipients and announce the allocation of an extra $5.8 million from the 2013-2014 State budget to provide implants to patients with moderate to profound hearing loss.

In addition, $2 million in proceeds from savings achieved through the corporate restructure of Queensland Health would be set aside to deliver cochlear implants to 22 children.

Accompanied by the general manager of Cochlear Limited Shaun Hand, Mr Springborg said about 119 Queensland adolescents and adults were on the waiting list to receive a cochlear implant.

“The current waiting time for such an implant is about three to four years and that is just too long to wait for this life-enhancing, life-changing procedure,” Mr Springborg said.

“This extra funding will mean all people currently on the cochlear implant waiting list should be able to receive their implants during the 2013-2014 financial year.”

Mr Springborg said the electronic, surgically implanted device let users experience sounds as they occur by sending electrical signals to the nerve endings in the inner ear (called the cochlea).

“This program is a wonderful example of the benefits available to Queenslanders through our support for new health research and technology and for our commitment to better healthcare in general,” he said.

“No one can help but be moved by the reactions of a child who is able to hear their mother and father, their brothers and sisters, or their pet dog barking for the very first time.”

Thirteen per cent of the Australian population has a degree of hearing loss, while up to two in every 1,000 children are born with a hearing loss or developed a loss. Others develop hearing loss in early childhood.

Mr Springborg said Australia was a pioneer and world leader in the development of cochlear implant technology.

Australian scientist Professor Graeme Clark from the University of Melbourne, who began research into cochlear implants in the 1960s, is recognised as the father of the bionic ear. An Australian man was the world’s first recipient of such in implant in 1978.

[ENDS] 29 May 2013

Media contact: Cameron Thompson 0407 585 230