XN000022-1996-03-06 — Page 127

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· 113.

To be eligible for compensation under the scheme, a claimant is required under the Ordinance to fulfil the following disability and occupational requirements :

(a)

he should be suffering from sensorineural hearing loss amounting to not less than 50 dB in each ear, where such loss is due in the case of at least one ear to noise and being the average of pure tone losses measured by audiometry over the 1, 2 and 3 kHz frequencies; and

he should have

(b)

0

(ii)

at least 10 years of employment in aggregate in specified noisy occupations in Hong Kong; and

a period of continuous employment in a noisy occupation at any time either within the 12 months preceding the application for compensation or within the 72 months before the date of implementation of the scheme, i.e. 1 July 1995, provided that he submits his application for compensation within 12 months after the commencement of the Scheme, i.e. by 30 June 1996.

As regards Part (a) of the question, up to 29 February 1996, the Occupational Deafness Compensation Board ("the Board") has received 231 applications for compensation of which 142 are under consideration. 45 have been approved, 39 were rejected, and 5 withdrawn by the applicants.

As regards Part (b) of the question, according to Section 15 of the Ordinance, a claimant who applies for compensation under the Scheme and who fulfils the occupational requirements has to undergo a hearing test at a hearing test centre designated by the Board for the purpose of assessing the degree of hearing loss suffered by the claimant. The Yaumati ENT Clinic of the Hospital Authority is the only clinic which has been designated by the Board under Section 36 of the Ordinance as the hearing test centre for the Scheme.

The audiological facilities and calibration methods being used in the hearing tests conducted at the Yaumati ENT Clinic conform with well-established international standards. Moreover, as an administrative rule, the Board requires each claimant who applies for the hearing test to be away from excessive noise at work for at least 24 hours prior to taking the audiometric test, so that the measurements can truly reflect his/her permanent hearing disability. This rule is also in line with international standards. As regards tests conducted by private clinics, we have no information on the audiological facilities and calibration methods which may be used to determine hearing loss. Nevertheless, the results of hearing tests conducted by any of these private clinics will not be accepted for the purpose of compensation under the Scheme.