Dozens more children harmed after care failures
Dozens more children have suffered harm due to failings in audiology services, HSJ can reveal.
Several trusts have newly admitted their assessment of the damage caused by a widespread failing in the services, which are meant to pick up and begin addressing hearing problems while people are young.
Reports emerged in Scotland in 2021, and last year an NHS England audit found services in England were also likely to have similar problems.
Failures include ineffective testing leading to infants’ deafness being missed for long periods and other children not being properly referred for help they needed. It was caused by failures across training, leadership, equipment, and governance.
As of last year, several English trusts had declared a total of 36 known cases of “severe” harm, defined as “permanent or long-term” damage.
Several of those providers have now declared they have found more cases of harm, while some new trusts have declared problems and harm for the first time.
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Source: HSJ, 24 September 2024