One audiologist, and no one paying her to prefer a brand

Pooja spent more than a decade working for a large corporate hearing provider. The clinical work was good. What wore thin was being handed a target for a particular manufacturer's devices in a particular quarter.

Where she trained

She completed a Masters in Speech Pathology and Audiology in 2009 in India and worked for two years before moving to Australia in 2011. She has been a full member of the Australian College of Audiology since 2012, and has worked in several parts of the country before settling in Canberra, which has now been home for about ten years. She has been looking after the ACT since 2018.

Eighteen years of clinical audiology sits behind every appointment, and she is a registered provider with the Office of Hearing Services, WorkCover, NDIS and Medicare. Candid Hearing serves both the ACT and the surrounding NSW region.

Why she went independent

Almost every hearing clinic in this country is owned by, or contracted to, a hearing aid manufacturer. That structure is not sinister and the clinicians inside it are not villains. But it does mean that the person testing your hearing frequently has a commercial reason to prefer one box over another, and when the recommendation and the incentive point the same way, you can never quite be sure which one you are hearing.

Candid Hearing takes no commission from any manufacturer. Every major brand is available. The practical consequence is small and it is the whole point: Pooja is free to tell you that the entry-level device would suit you perfectly well.

"As an independent Audiologist she is not out to sell you the most expensive items. In fact she talked me down to the base model Hearing aids (Govt supported) and as a pensioner this is very important to me."
— Robert James, Google review, August 2026

What is different about an appointment here

You see the same person every time

Pooja does the history, the testing, the fitting and all five follow-up appointments. Nobody hands you between staff, and nobody has to read up on your file before they see you. For a condition managed over years rather than fixed in one visit, that continuity does most of the work.

Two hours, not fifteen minutes

A first appointment runs about two hours. Longer than the industry norm, and deliberately so. It covers the history, the full test battery, going through your audiogram with you on screen, and a written report to your GP.

Real Ear Measurement on every fitting

A probe microphone in your ear canal measures what the hearing aid is actually delivering to your eardrum, and the device is tuned until the measurement matches your prescription. Skipping this step makes the fitting an educated estimate. It is not skipped here.

Where she works

The permanent clinic is at Shop 7/104 Northbourne Ave in Braddon, a few minutes from the city. Pooja also runs visiting clinics inside host medical practices at Hawker, Conder and Yass, and sees people at home and in aged care where getting to a clinic is the obstacle.

All four locations and how to get to them.