Hearing aids: family practitioner referral patterns.

This study aims to determine whether the implementation of a direct referral service in which family practitioners received feedback on the appropriateness of their patient selection had any impact on the referral pattern. Six months after the establishment of such a service to which general practitioners were requested to refer patients who satisfied the Hearing Aid Council and Therapist Technicians and Scientists in Audiology group criteria, 40 consecutive patients were analysed. 40 age matched controls referred concurrently to the routine ENT clinic for hearing aid provision were compared. In the 80 ears seen in each group, the number of perforations infected or otherwise were 2 and 7 respectively (P less than 0.01). Conductive hearing losses were more common in the control group (P less than 0.05). The degree of patient selection was higher than noted in the first 6 months of the service when the prevalence of perforations in the direct sample was 7%. It appears that the practice of selective referral has developed.