Duncan Collet-Fenson is the UK Audiologist of the Year

After months of anticipation andhundreds of nominations from acrossthe country, the call was made to thewinning UK Audiologist of the Yearin mid-September. Duncan Collet-Fenson, the 2016 champion re-livesthe telephone conversation, “When I received the call Iwas shocked. I was working off-site conducting clinicalear care and hearing assessments in our Mobile Audiology Suite – I thought that one of my colleagueswas playing a practical joke. While on the call I wasthinking who is this and then as the realisation slowlysank in I was stunned. Even after the call I was still halfexpecting a “gotcha moment’.”

But it certainly wasn’t a ‘gotcha moment’ as Duncanreally has been chosen as the 2016 UK Audiologistof the Year. Duncan’s dedication to his patients shonethrough in the nomination from Nicola Magrath.

“Care and support well beyond theprovision of hearing aids.”

As part of her detailed nomination Nicola said, “Thanksto the continued support of Duncan my story is a happy but complex one. He and his team have been there forme at every turn.

“From childhood I had an 80% hearing loss in one earand normal hearing in the other. I lived happily with thisuntil I experienced Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss(SSHL) in my ‘normal hearing’ ear. My life had changed;I could no longer hear. With a young family I desperatelyneeded to reconnect to the hearing world.

“I feel very fortunate at this point to have discoveredAston Hearing Services and to have met Duncan. Withpatience and understanding he guided me through theoptions and was always available to answer questions.This was especially important as I undertook morechallenges and new, noisier situations.

“Duncan provides care and support well beyond theprovision of hearing aids. I felt my personal story couldhelp people understand the impact of SSHL and I haveworked together with Duncan on a campaign to raisepublic awareness of the condition. We often give grouptalks and have published articles in magazines. Weeven ran a cookery course for a group of ladies whohad similarly lost their hearing. This was a great successand allowed us all to share feelings of loneliness andisolation caused by hearing loss.

“My relationship with Duncan and his team is one ofcomplete trust. I am very fortunate to have Duncan as my audiologist and friend and he deserves to berecognised for all his hard work and support to all hisclients.”

As with many of these nominations, Nicola’s story is along, complicated but very important one and highlightsan issue that many have to deal with. Duncan explainedthat Nicola’s audiological history is complex, “She hadexperienced SSHL in her right ear and then some yearslater had a further attack in her left ear rendering itunaidable and worse than the poor hearing in her rightear.”

Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

The journey that Nicola and the Aston Hearing teamhave been through since 2005 is worthy of more indepthcoverage in a future issue of Audio Infos, but itis worth highlighting that, combined with the personalexperience of Duncan’s mother-in-law, this led to anawareness campaign about SSHL and emergencydiagnosis that is on-going. The team were on nationaland local media to raise awareness of the issue. Duncanis an active member of the Association of IndependentHearing Healthcare Professionals (AIHHP) havingrecently served as Chairman (now taking the Treasurerrole), and members of AIHHP have been offering anemergency screening service for SSHL following theAston Hearing Services campaign.

Furthermore, following Nicola’s recent traumaticexperience of SSHL, Aston Hearing met with their ENTwho has now written a covering letter that they can give to anyone that presents to their office with the symptomsto go direct to GP/hospital pharmacy for the steroidswithout having to go through A&E triage. “This is anenormous step forward,” Duncan said.

Nicola has now agreed to join the team to run anoutreach programme, where Aston Hearing Servicesgo into the community for deaf awareness and publicityfor SSHL, which includes GP practices. This next stepstarts in November. At the moment Nicola is doing well.Duncan said, “After Nicola’s (known to us as Nikki)hearing recovered – the whole company was elated. Itwas a big deal for the whole team, we all felt touchedand very emotional about the whole event. Once thedust had settled, Nikki delivered a crate of wine for theteam and a wonderful note saying thank you.”

And then she sent her nomination for Duncan to bechosen as the UK Audiologist of the Year to Rayovac!

It’s not always been audiology

Duncan hasn’t always been a hearing care professional.His history is an interesting one and goes somewayto explaining his focus on customer care and keeninvolvement in marketing. Duncan spoke to Audio Infosabout his route into the profession.

“I have worked for Aston Hearing since 1998. I did mytraining with Robert Rendell in Cheltenham and SusanWebster (my mother-in-law) was my supervisor. Prior toaudiology I worked for Avon Cosmetics – in the headoffice in Northampton. I had an assistant marketingmanager position in the marketing department. I workedin a small team of three managing the young teen makeup brand – which at the time was their most successfulline. Avon Cosmetics gave me experience of workingin a big international business and the importance ofmarketing and most importantly the measurement of amarketing campaign.

I did a degree in Hotel Management at ManchesterMetropolitan University. Although my route intoaudiology seems unusual – it was actually a perfectgrounding for the job. My focus at University was verymuch on the importance of exceptional customerservice which has always been and will always be thecornerstone or our offering at Aston Hearing.”

6 days a week and a late night Tuesday

This positive experience in marketing and customerservices can now be seen in action at the Aston Hearingpractices. The two centres are open six days a weekand till very late on a Tuesday night. Duncan explainshow he manages his time, “My day is busy. TypicallyI will see mainly re-assesses and follow up fittings – Itry to encourage as many of the new assessments togo to our team members as my client list is full. I will normally do 3 wax removals a day – on average I see10– 12 appointments per day. We offer a Saturdayservice every week and a late night Tuesday whereMatthew and I see clients up to 10pm – this is a verypopular service and it is great we are now able to offertwo audiologists for this late night service. I try to keepWednesday as a support day for the team and workseeing clients on a Saturday instead.”

A team award

Asked how his colleagues view the award, Duncansaid, “We all feel that it is a team award and very muchconsolidates the vision of the practice.” So who is ‘theteam’? “We have 3 full time and 2 part time audiologistsand Kate [Duncan’s wife and business partner] whois qualified but works in the management side ofthe business and 4 reception staff and 1 marketingspecialist – working over two full time centres. This is ahigh number of fully qualified staff for two practices butthis allows us to offer 6 days a week plus evening clinics.We feel this is a model for the future of hearing care.”Judge Søren Hougaard, from EHIMA, said: “Everyyear we receive so many inspiring nominations andit’s wonderful to celebrate the admirable work ofaudiologists across Europe. On behalf of all at EHIMA,I’d like to congratulate Duncan and thank every hearingprofessional across Europe for the incredible differencethey’re making to their patients’ lives.”

Søren will be in attendance at the Rayovac Evening ofExcellence at the EUHA congress in Hanover to presentthe trophy to the European Audiologist of the Year for2016. Duncan has competition from nine othercountries for the title. So, congratulations on winning theUK title and good luck with the European competitionDuncan!