NHS hearing units misdiagnosed thousands of children and ‘did nothing’

Watching from the side of the school playing field, Amy and Noel Denman were worried about Scarlet, their three-year-old daughter.

While other children ran around laughing, enjoying their first sports day at the Lincolnshire nursery school, Scarlet seemed vacant. When the teachers told her to run she stood still … then burst into tears.

Amy Denman now knows why her daughter was acting so strangely. Recalling that day six years ago, she is furious over how the NHS has failed her family.

Scarlet, she has learnt, is partially deaf. She could not understand what was happening or what was expected of her. She is one of thousands of children misdiagnosed by NHS audiology units across England.

Leaked internal documents from NHS England reveal a nationwide failure in child hearing services. They suggest that 1,540 children have been misdiagnosed since 2019. Some, like Scarlet, were given the all-clear when they had significant problems. Others were told they were deaf — but hearing aids could have helped them.

Some 480 children suffered moderate or severe harm, the papers say. For some infants this will mean permanent delays in speech and language development as well as their educational abilities.

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Source: The Times, 28 September 2024