Our team at Kent Hearing
Director and Consultant Audiologist
Dr. Priya Carling, AuD, RHAD
Priya trained as a speech-language therapist and audiologist in South Africa and completed her AuD through an American university in Florida. She has over 20 years clinical and management experience in both the UK private sector and the NHS.
She has worked as Head of Audiology, Neurophysiology and Speech Therapy at the BUPA Cromwell Hospital, London and was Head of Audiology for East Kent Audiology Services. She then spent 7 years as Director of Education, Principle Investigator and Senior Lecturer at UCL’s Ear Institute in London.
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In 2017 Priya set up Kent Hearing. The practice offers a local clinical service, including earwax removal, hearing testing, hearing aids, tinnitus management and paediatric services. Priya is also lead audiologist at West Kent ENT Community Service.
She is a consultant to the World Health Organisation (WHO) for whom she has helped develop their ‘Basic Ear and Hearing Care resource. She is a member of the scientific advisory board for the BEAR project in Denmark and is a sections editor for the clinical publication ENT and Audiology News.
Priya’s research experience includes clinical trials of interventions (device and pharmacological) for hearing loss and tinnitus and her particular interests include noise-induced hearing loss prevention and education for improving patient outcomes through high quality service delivery.
Practice Co-ordinator
Stephanie Hogan
Having started her career in the restaurant industry, Stephanie worked for a chain of national opticians before joining Kent Hearing in 2018. She is responsible for much of the important behind the scenes administration and organisation that keeps the practice running smoothly and efficiently.
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Steph’s responsibilities include booking and managing patient appointments, organising follow-ups, book-keeping and finance, IT and all other aspects of day-to-day office administration. She also attends patient consultations when required, assists with hearing aid maintenance and care, and enjoys meeting the wide range of patient’s of all ages that come to the practice.
Audiologist
Ruth Bannister BSc
Ruth joined us in 2020 and is a highly experienced audiologist with over 15 years’ experience in her field. She works with us on a part-time basis, also working with Dr Carling as part of the Kent Community ENT team at Borough Green medical practice and additionally as a bank team member of the children’s audiology team at the Kent Community Health Foundation Trust.
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At Kent Hearing Ruth works closely with Dr Carling, both taking and assisting with paediatric clinics, fitting hearing aids and running hearing aid follow up clinics. She also oversees Kent Hearing’s monthly audiology clinic at Sheppey Eyecare on the Isle of Sheppey and takes school hearing screening appointments in local schools.
Ruth holds a BSc Honours degree in Hearing Science in 2018 from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, as well as a Foundation degree in the Sciences Hearing Aid Audiology and a BSA Certificate in impression taking. Her past roles have included both Senior Paediatric Audiology and Liaison Officer and Paediatric Audiologist for the Kent Community Health Foundation Trust. She also has a level 6 qualification in British sign language.
She enjoys the diversity of her work and gets great satisfaction helping to improve her patient’s quality of life and their ability to communicate. Ruth volunteers for both the Kent Deaf Children’s Society and the British Society of Audiology, where she supports the social media team.