Hinchingbrooke hospital says sorry to mum after failures

Natalie Brewell said her daughter "got hearing aids at quite an older age than she should have"

A mum whose three-year-old daughter was undiagnosed with hearing difficulties has had an apology from an NHS hospital.

Natalie Brewell, 38, from St Ives in Cambridgeshire was told there had been failings in the tests

She said: "We were quite upset. The whole family was quite shocked."

Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon said they had reviewed their tests and apologised to the family "and other children in our care".

Ms Brewell said her daughter Luna had been hindered because of the hospital's failings during the new-born screening tests.

"I truly believe if she was diagnosed earlier she wouldn't be as delayed," she said.

Luna was born via a Caesarean section at Hinchingbrooke in November 2019. At three weeks old she was referred to hospital's audiology department after she failed four screening tests.

Ms Brewell was told the results were inconclusive and Luna had to be rebooked for more auditory brainstem response tests.

At nine months old, Luna was diagnosed with hearing problems and a month after the diagnosis was given hearing aids.

"Luna got hearing aids at quite an older age than she should have," said her mother.

"It caused a lot of developmental delays."

At nine months old, Luna was diagnosed with hearing problems and a month after the diagnosis was given hearing aids

It was not until a "candour" phone call from the head of audiology informed Ms Brewell of the mistakes they had made.

"It was just a bit of a shock to realise it wasn't Covid that had caused the delays... [it was] something wrong within the audiology department," said Ms Brewell.

The hospital provided her with a written apology explaining that the testing had not met their current guidelines.

Hinchingbrooke Hospital acknowledged Luna's hearing impairment was "not correctly diagnosed or identified as early as possible as a result of inadequate testing"

Ms Brewell was able to meet hospital representatives and was also provided with a verbal apology.

"They were very apologetic, which is what I wanted. I wanted someone to say to me that they were sorry," she said.

Hinchingbrooke told Ms Brewell of the measures they were putting in place to try to rectify the mistakes.

"I asked how many families had been affected at that hospital. They told me there were 37 families and told me a handful more hospitals had failed families in their testing," said the mum.

Luna, who is now three years old, has been diagnosed with moderate hearing loss. Her mum said her level of hearing was similar to that of someone with good hearing swimming underwater.

"You hear sounds, but everything is muffled," she said.

Luna's mum said she was worried the delay in diagnosis would affect her when she started school next year

Mrs Brewell said she had become Luna's full-time carer because of the delay getting hearing aids, and her daughter now had an 18-month development delay behind her peers in terms of her speech and other learning.

"If she was diagnosed earlier she wouldn't be as delayed," she said.

"She is so far behind that it worries me for when she starts school next year."

A spokesperson for the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Hinchingbrooke Hospital, said: "We offer our sincerest apology to Luna and her family, and other children in our care whose hearing conditions were not correctly diagnosed or identified as early as possible as a result of inadequate testing.

"The trust has reviewed specialist hearing tests referred to the new-born hearing screening programme between April 2018 and January 2023, as part of national review programme.

"As a result, we have contacted a small number of parents directly to invite children back for further specialist hearing tests."

Ms Brewell said: "We see these people multiple times a year; these people are supposed to guide us and tell us what she needs and what needs to be put in place and the system is broken.

"It's not working and I'm proof of that, and there are hundreds of families that will be proof of that."