For professionals

Referrals

Referrals are accepted from ENT surgeons, GPs, audiologists, paediatricians and some other professionals. Any age can be referred, and we welcome referrals before 12 months of age for assessments for cochlear implants.

All referrals should be made using our referral form below. Please note that from February 2023, only referrals received on this form will be accepted.

Please send completed referral forms to:

Head of Service
The Emmeline Centre
Box 163
Addenbrooke’s Hospital
Cambridge, CB2 2QQ
Telephone: 01223 217589

Email referrals

Before referral, it is preferable if:

• Any middle ear condition is resolved or in treatment
• Hearing aids have been optimally fitted according to national guidelines
• Any areas of developmental or medical concern have been highlighted

Please contact us if you have any queries. We are happy to discuss referrals informally.

Email our dedicated Cochlear implant mentor who is available to discuss any queries.

Referral criteria

Referral criteria specific to each implant type (based on NICE guidelines) are available.

Referral guidelines for cochlear implant

Please access the NICE guidelines (opens in a new tab).

• Severe-Profound hearing loss: hearing only sounds that are louder than 80 dB HL (pure-tone audiometric threshold equal to or greater than 80 dB HL) at 2 or more frequencies (500 Hz, 1,000 Hz, 2,000 Hz, 3,000 Hz and 4,000 Hz) bilaterally without acoustic hearing aids.
• Poor speech discrimination: For adults, a phoneme score of 50% or greater on the Arthur Boothroyd word test presented at 70 dBA. For children, failure to develop age appropriate speech and language and lack of benefit from hearing aids.
• Limited benefit from hearing aids.

Referral guidelines for Bone Conduction Devices

• Conductive or mixed hearing loss in one ear or both
• Inability to wear conventional hearing aids (e.g. due to ear infections, ear malformations, exostoses, allergic to earmoulds, etc.)
• Outer or middle ear problems
• Single Sided Deafness or asymmetric hearing loss

Referral Criteria for those with a Mixed or Conductive hearing loss in one ear or both

• Stable BC thresholds
• Inability to wear conventional hearing aids (e.g. due to outer ear infections, ear malformations, etc)
• Absence of active or chronic middle ear infection
• Suitable middle ear anatomy assessed by CT scan

Transferring a patient to the Emmeline Centre

Please complete this form to transfer an implanted patient to our centre: