Widex opens hearing and speech therapy centre in Chennai

Chennai, May 18 (UNI) Widex India, a Joint Venture subsidiary of the Danish-based company, today launched its first exclusive hearing and speech therapy centre in the city.

''We are planning to have 100 such centres across the country in the next five years through franchisees,'' Widex India Managing Director T S Anand said here.

The centre, the 18th in the country, was inaugurated by renowned cricketer and the company's Brand Ambassador Syed Kirmani.

The MD said Widex would be opening up its 19th centre at Kochi tomorrow and the 20th at Hyderabad, the day after.

Stating that one in every 1,000 children is born with severe hearing loss, Mr Anand said the centre, equipped with the latest state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities and Noah Link Technology, was planning to tie up with nursing homes and hospitals for neo-natal screening of new borns and infants.

''We want to create an awareness among the parents, sensitise the NGOs, state and Central governments to take up this programme of universal testing of new borns to identify children with hearing loss,'' he said.

The Centre was also equipped with facilities to provide speech therapy.

He said the company was the market leader in India on hearing aids with a share of 50 per cent and added that ''Widex is the fastest growing company in India with a growth of 40 per cent as against the Industry average of 10 to 15 per cent.'' To mark the occasion, Widex also distributed free hearing aids to the underprivileged hearing impaired children.

UNI