Hearing services review after 'horrendous' NHS Lothian errors

The Scottish government has launched an independent review into audiology services for children and adults across the country.

It comes after mistakes by NHS Lothian in its paediatric audiology department were branded "horrendous" by a charity.

An audit of the health board's services found significant failures in 155 of the 1,113 patients treated between 2009 and 2018.

This led to children being identified as deaf years later.

NHS Lothian last month admitted the delay would have "long-term" consequences for the speech and language development of the children involved.

The Scottish government has said that further assessment of audiology services has "highlighted areas of improvement" that need to be addressed.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said: "Following the unacceptable failures that were highlighted in paediatric audiology in NHS Lothian, I want to make sure our hearing services are fit for purpose across Scotland, and this means ensuring any wider issues are identified and rectified.

"The first step of this is to appoint an independent chair, a process which will be undertaken as quickly as possible to provide the necessary leadership and oversight for this important piece of work."

Mr Yousaf added that he would provide an update detailing the remit of the review, its membership and timetable for reporting once an appointment has been made.

The independent investigation into NHS Lothian uncovered "significant failures" involving 155 children over a period of nine years.

The health board said it "apologised sincerely" to those affected.

It commissioned the external review of its paediatric audiology service following criticism in May about the diagnosis and care of a child with hearing difficulties.

That review was carried out by the British Academy of Audiology (BAA), which has now made 36 recommendations to the health board - nine of which must be addressed immediately.

The National Deaf Children's Society last month called for a "sweeping review" of children's audiology services in Scotland after "almost a decade of failures" at NHS Lothian.

The society's chief executive, Susan Daniels, said: "The horrendous findings in this report represent a real-life nightmare for the families involved. They placed their trust in a service that was supposed to help, only to be completely let down."

The society believes that thousands of children treated at NHS Lothian could have been affected.

The BAA highlighted the average age of diagnosis of hearing loss at NHS Lothian, which between 2009 and 2018 was 4.5 years.

In England, the average age of diagnosis was 109 days.

The report said it was "internationally recognised" that delays to diagnosis could have "significant detrimental effects" on children's lives.

It added: "The root cause of these failures is identified as a lack of scientific leadership, knowledge, reflection and inquiry in the presence of a lack of routine and robust quality assurance processes."

Tracey Gillies, medical director at NHS Lothian, said the health board was "very sorry and saddened" by the findings.

The health board has written to the families of children affected to offer support and a meeting to discuss their child's condition.