KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital will provide free cochlear surgery to hearing-impaired children up to the age of six, director Colonel M. Dayanand said in Belagavi on Saturday.
KLESDPK is the first private hospital in the North Karnataka to be empanelled for a free cochlear surgery programme for children under 6 years for severe to profound deafness under a government scheme.
The Department of ENT and HNS has successfully performed 16 cochlear implant surgeries for children below 6 years under this scheme for free. They are all undergoing free auditory verbal therapy for 6 months to 1 year KLE Hospital.
Children as young as 10 months can undergo cochlear implant surgery too. The Karnataka government along with National Programme for Control and Prevention of Deafness under Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST) have started this scheme. Presently, many government and private hospitals are empanelled under this scheme for free surgery.
