Your Visit

What to bring:

• A valid referral from your GP or specialist. It is preferable if you could email it prior to appointment, so we can advise you ahead of time if there are any problems with it.
• Any relevant test results, including but not limited to any previous hearing tests, balance tests, CT or MRI scans, pathology, allergy tests or sleep studies
• Your Medicare and Private Health Fund details
• A list of your current Medication and Allergies
• Please also advice us if there are any language barriers and we would be happy to organise an interpreter.

Parking:

Please note that parking can be validated at the centre and will cost $7.00. In some cases, if additional tests are conducted, there may be a delay or additional wait as we endeavour to minimise additional trips to the clinic. Please allow extra time and also be reassured that your parking will only cost $7.00 for the entire visit.

Fees:

A detailed list of our fees of consultation and procedures performed can be attained from the clinic at the time of booking. Any additional tests such as audiological tests, physiotherapy consults, or speech pathology tests with other providers and will incur extra costs. For the schedule of fees please contact: Neurosensory on 02 8039 3860 and Optimal Speech on 0403 903 822.

Research:

Dr Mukherjee is a Clinical Academic Surgeon and is involved in research and teaching as part of the University of Sydney. She is the Chief Investigator of several research grants administered through the University of Sydney and responsible for leading many research trials.

Sometimes we see complex cases that inspires further research. In select cases, you may be invited to participate in such research projects. In such cases, you will be given detailed information about any such research and of course, will be able to accept or abstain.

Dr Mukherjee performs operations at the following hospitals:

• Sydney Adventist Hospital (Wahroonga)
• Chatswood Private Hospital (Chatswood)
• Macquarie University Hospital, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse (Macquarie Park)
• Chris O’Brien Lifehouse (Camperdown)

Dr Payal Mukherjee is the ENT research lead at the RPA Institute of Academic Surgery, Sydney University (Brain and Mind Research Institute), University of Sydney (Central Sydney Clinical School & Northern Sydney Clinical School.

Preoperative Instructions:

• Adult Preoperative Instructions
• Paediatric Preoperative Instructions
• To prepare your child for surgery, please watch Teddy’s tonsillitis video
• For grommet surgery, please watch Operation Ouch

Post operative Instructions:

• Post op Tonsillectomy (See PDF)
• Post op Grommets (See PDF)
• Post op Adenoidectomy (See PDF)
• Post op Ear Surgery (See PDF)
• Post of Cochlear Implant Surgery (See PDF)
• Post op Nasal Surgery (See PDF)

Dr Martin Chau

M.B.B.S. (Syd), MMed, FANZCA

Dr Martin Chau is a specialist anaesthetist who graduated from The University of Sydney and completed his medical training at RPAH and Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.

He has VMO appointments at Sydney Adventist Hospital, Westmead Private Hospital, Norwest Private Hospital, Prince of Wales Private Hospital, St George Private Hospital and Western Sydney Local Health District.

His special interests include ENT, paediatric dental, endoscopy and urological anaesthesia. He believes in evidence based medical practice to provide the best available care to patients and he has a Master’s Degree of Medicine in Clinical Epidemiology. He also has a Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Ultrasound.

Dr Arun Thiagarajan

Dr Arun Thiagarajan is an Australian-trained Anaesthetist based in Sydney. He received his MBBS from the University of NSW and initially pursued a career in Paediatrics and Neonates, working in several Paediatric units in Australia and the UK. He moved to training in Anaesthesia and completed his training through the St George Hospital program with a Specialist Fellowship in Paediatric Anaesthesia at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. He gained his registration with the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in 2010.

Arun currently undertakes anaesthesia in several major hospitals in Sydney including North Shore Private, Sydney Adventist and Macquarie University hospitals. He is involved in surgery in several specialties including orthopaedics, breast surgery, general surgery and urology but has a particular interest in paediatric and ENT surgery which forms a large portion of his workload. He is particularly interested in the perioperative process involving children and is focused on making this as smooth as possible.

You will be called the day before your surgery by the hospital regarding your operation

Please find attached electronic admission forms and contact phone number for further information for:

Sydney Adventist Hospital: Phone: 02 9487 9111

• General Admission form (for adults and children)
• Paediatric Admission form

For more information on getting to the San, including via public transport, see:
https://www.sah.org.au/how-to-find-us

Chatswood Private Hospital: Phone 02 9413 4822

• General Admission form (for adults and children)

Macquarie University Hospital Phone 02 9812 3000

• General Admission form (for adults and children)

Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Phone 02 8514 0000

• General Admission form (for adults and children)

Cochlear Implantation:

Generally, as an overseas patient you will need a total of approximately 6 to 8 weeks in Australia for the surgery. This includes 1-2 weeks before the surgery in order for your consultation with A/Prof Mukherjee, to complete a Cochlear Implant Assessment, which can be performed by our partners in audiological services, Neurosensory, ideally at the same time as the consultation with A/Prof Mukherjee. This time may be necessary to organise any further imaging and order the implant. However, where possible, we try to co-ordinate to gather this information prior to your arrival, which streamlines your assessment and planning.

If there are additional procedures required, this may increase the length of time required to your stay. After the operation, appropriate audiological rehabilitation is the most important part to the overall hearing outcome from your cochlear implant. The support requires varies from patient to patient and also varies according to the resources available to you back at your home city. This is assessed at an individual level and can influence the total length of time required to stay in the country.

Operation:

In general, an overnight stay in hospital is required following the surgery and unless there are any pressing reasons, you will be seen by the audiologist the next day to switch on your implant. Following surgery, you will see A.Prof Mukherjee a week later for a post-operative review and then continue to follow up with the Audiologist every at frequent intervals to ensure optimal outcome in the weeks to follow until they are happy that you can be managed closer to home.

Fees:

In Australia, a surgical procedure will encounter 3 different fees, the surgeon’s fee, the anaesthetist fee and the hospital fee. As an international patient, without Medicare or Health fund cover you will be out of pocket for the total expense of the surgery. In the case a Cochlear Implant or any other implantable hearing device is used, the patient would then also incur the added cost of the implant. For more information regarding these devices please see websites of Cochlear Ltd, MED-EL and Advanced Bionics.

Watch 4th Annual Meniere’s Disease Research Symposium Video

There are 3 aspects of the costs to any surgery:

1. The hospital cost;
2. The Surgical cost; and
3. The Anaesthetic cost

Hospital: Please contact your health fund regarding your level of cover for any given procedure prior to your booking.

Dr Mukherjee’s fees: A full list of Dr Mukherjee’s cost will be provided to you prior to Surgery. Please contact our rooms for any further questions.

Anaesthetic fees: Please contact your Anaesthetist for fees related to the Anaesthetic.