Bath Rugby player Mat Gilbert has officially opened Sirona Care’s new state-of-the-art Children’s Audiology Clinic at St Martin’s Hospital.
The 28-year-old flanker knows more than most the importance of having great audiology facilities as he gradually lost his hearing as a child.
Mat joined Sirona board members, councillors, and families who use the service to officially declare open the unit at St Martin’s.
He said: “I know as I grew up how important it was to have a great audiology service and hopefully this facility will allow you do your job to the best of your ability.”
The opening was a dream come true for Dr Adrian Dighe, consultant paediatrician and team leader for the newborn hearing screening programme.
He said: “It represents a state of the art centre for children and their families where hearing assessment can take place in a truly sound proofed environment and to modern exacting standards. It will see our young ones through to the next generation and beyond.”
Dr Dighe praised those who helped to translate the dream into reality including the directors of Sirona, a not-for-profit social enterprise providing community health care and adult social services in Bath and North East Somerset, and the commissioners who approved the funding.
He added: “Sirona listened to a coal face clinician presenting the need to improve quality of personal care where the individual comes first and so I’d like to personally thank Janet Rowse, our chief executive, for leading an organisation that really does try, despite the austerities of today’s finances, to put quality first and secondly for developing an organisation that follows through on its vision to listen and act.
“Last but by no means least I want to mention our little ones, the children we serve. They love it here and so do their parents. They have told us so.”
The official opening saw the unveiling of Sirona Ted, the unit’s new mascot created by Janet’s mother, retired GP Dr Elizabeth Rowse, who began making decorative teddy bears after her retirement.
