NHS may have missed thousands of deaf children in ‘huge national failure’

NHS trusts across England are scrambling to trace thousands of children for urgent hearing tests amid fears that cases of infant deafness may have been missed for years.

An internal NHS report has exposed poor-quality testing within paediatric audiology departments at five hospitals and warned of systemic failings. At another NHS trust, almost 1,500 children were found to have missed out on appointments dating back to 2012. 

Vital quality inspections of departments checking infants for hearing loss were stopped ten years ago. Whistleblowers who previously worked for the NHS’s newborn hearing screening programme have revealed that concerns were raised shortly before they were told to stop carrying out checks.

They say that thousands of children may have been mistreated for deafness and hearing loss in the past decade.

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Source: The Times, 25 June 2023