TORONTO - Ontario is cutting the wait time in half for people with severe hearing loss who are waiting to get cochlear implants.
The government will spend an additional $5.9 million over the next year so 184 additional cochlear devices can be implanted in children and adults.
Health Minister Deb Matthews says the procedure can be "life changing" for people who have the operation.
She says the wait times are too long and there were children who were falling further behind because they didn't have the implants.
About 10 per cent of Ontarians with severe hearing loss can benefit from the procedure, which involves placing electrodes in the inner ear attached to a microphone outside the ear and wired to an external speech processor.
But NDP health critic France Gelinas says children spend years on the waiting list for the controversial procedure -- far too long -- and cutting the wait time in half doesn't go nearly far enough.
