Sidra’s ENT Outpatient Clinic is providing audiology services from this month which will attend to children with complex hearing problems.
“Sidra’s audiology service is launched from this month. Our plan is to create a “one visit clinic” that will also handle hearing assessment referrals from within our clinics at Sidra. A patient who comes in for an ENT or other speciality consultation will also be able to see an audiology specialist during the same visit if necessary,” Dr Patrick Sheehan, chief of the department told Gulf Times.
The ENT team at Sidra focuses on managing children including very young children and babies with hearing problems as well as those with learning difficulties. According to the official, the ENT team is focused and committed to providing a child- and family-centred approach to treatment.
The clinic also features Paediatric Otolaryngology services, which provides medical and surgical treatment to children with disorders of the ears, nose and throat as well as head and neck conditions.
“We have special expertise in the management of children with upper airway problems and congenital malformations of head and neck structures.We work closely with our paediatric, craniofacial and neonatal intensive care colleagues to look after ENT, head, neck and airway related problems in seriously ill children. The team at Sidra will also specialise in provision of dedicated hearing implant surgery for children, for example bone anchored hearing aids,” explained Dr Sheehan.
According to Dr Sheehan, the ENT clinic will work closely with several multidisciplinary clinics and services to provide truly holistic care.  
He said: “These will include special needs clinic for children with special or learning difficulties; joint cranio-facial clinic with Department of Plastic/Craniofacial Surgery, Department of Ophthalmology and other allied health colleagues as well as joint ENT/Voice clinic with speech and language therapists and others. We will provide a tongue-tie release service for breast-feeding mothers in our lactation clinics. We will also have a dedicated paediatric tracheostomy care team”.
Dr Sheehan said that the team will also manage children who must undergo common ENT procedures but also have medical conditions that may increase anaesthetic risk. Sidra will have dedicated paediatric anaesthetists for children. Currently all paediatric surgeries are conducted at Hamad General Hospital.
The Sidra Outpatient clinics see children and women who are referred from Hamad Medical Corporation as well as Primary Health Care Corporation. The ENT Out Patient department that was opened on June 5, currently operates five days a week, with plans to  increase the number as demand increases.