Sassoon to get Maha’s first voice & speech diagnostic and treatment clinic

The clinic will not only diagnose voice-related problems but will also help patients undergo corrective surgery if required and also rehabilitation

Beginning Thursday, the Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) will get Maharashtra’s first voice and speech diagnostic and rehabilitation clinic as part of its ENT (ear-nose-throat) department which will soon be ready to serve patients. The clinic will not only diagnose voice-related problems but will also help patients undergo corrective surgery if required and also rehabilitation. The centre is being set up under a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project. The voice diagnostics and treatment centre is very crucial for professionals whose work is based on speech and voice.

The new centre will have much advanced technology like slow motion video to identify vocal cord motions and find minute details and these services will be available for people of any age who have a problem with their voice or those who have speech problems and who are dependent on their speech for a living such as teachers, singers, orators or preachers. (HT PHOTO)

Dr Sameer Joshi, head of the ENT department at SGH, said, “This will be the first voice and speech diagnostic and treatment clinic in any government hospital in the state. The centre will be launched on Thursday. We will be dealing with speech and voice diagnosis and rehab services. The new centre will have much advanced technology like slow motion video to identify vocal cord motions and find minute details and these services will be available for people of any age who have a problem with their voice or those who have speech problems and who are dependent on their speech for a living such as teachers, singers, orators or preachers. We will also attend to speech-related problems in kids like stammering or any problems related to voice or speech will be diagnosed and attended to.”

He further said, “Any change in voice like hoarseness can be treated at our centre. Most often, the patient himself or herself is not aware of the voice-related issues and with this centre, we could attend to it. Even now, we do treat voice-related problems however this will be more advanced. For example, we do videoscopy which currently is rapid wherein the faults can be identified because of the expertise of the person but with the new machinery being provided through CSR, we will be able to identify the faults and scars as it will be in slow motion which cannot be seen by the naked eye. So this will be the higher version of the routine treatment. Although this scar may not matter much to a teacher, it may make a huge difference to a singer. In that case we can diagnose it at the centre and suggest surgery if required. Any change of voice which could be bothering the person could be analysed at our centre in a very objective manner.”

The centre will have eight ENT surgeons who are associated with the hospital and will get modern machinery through CSR. However, the current audiologist deals with six times the number of cases reported at Mumbai’s J J hospital run by the state government or more than the cases reported at the national-level Aliyavar Jung hospital. The centre will be set up with the help of the Rotary club which might also provide audiologists for speech therapy so that each case can be attended to. Dr Joshi said, “Each patient will take up about two hours for speech therapy which may take days or months. The centre will be available every Monday and Thursday and the registration will stop by 12 noon. The registration will take place at OPD number 70 and then the patient will be referred to the new building. We could begin with six people per week in the beginning.”