The Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Speech Pathology, and Head and Neck Surgery departments would like to acknowledge and thank Dry July for funding the replacement of The Royal Melbourne Hospital’s stock of electrolarynx kits because the impact on laryngectomy patient care is immeasurable.

The RMH Speech Pathology department currently manages more than 50 patients post laryngectomy, and this financial support has meant that RMH can more reliably provide all patients following laryngectomy with a ‘new voice’. RMH is therefore now better positioned to uphold the universal basic human right that all patients should be able to verbally express themselves and participate in their own healthcare.

Patients will now be able to routinely access the latest models of these kits to restore verbal communication immediately following their laryngectomy surgery or during unrelated hospital admissions, to assist in determining whether it will become their primary means of communication.

A pertinent example of this is a laryngectomy patient who currently has no verbal means of communication. She has requested electrolaryngeal speech rehabilitation in the first instance to restore her verbal communication. She will be loaned a device for the period of her rehabilitation which will facilitate her communication in a full range of community settings. This will provide her the first opportunity to communicate verbally since her laryngectomy surgery four years ago.