31 May 2024

Children with hearing loss receive €420,000 payout over 'delayed diagnosis’

Two children who claimed their hearing loss was missed when they were younger have settled with the Irish health service over what they say was inadequate assessment and formative years spent without hearing aids.

A girl aged 11, who received €280,000, was found to have a moderate-to-severe loss in the right ear four years after she was allegedly assessed as having normal hearing as an infant in the Roscommon/Westmeath area of Ireland.

The family took action against the Health Service Executive (HSE) over the failures in audiological assessment and treatment, which they said left her without a hearing aid and led to speech delay, The Irish Times reported.

The HSE also admitted liability regarding shortcomings in treating a 16-year-old boy from the area. He was allegedly discharged with normal hearing, aged six, but reassessed and found to have a mild-to-moderate congenital hearing loss in one ear that would have benefited from hearing aid amplification. He received €140,000.

Meanwhile, a Deaf man from the UK has received a payout of £50,000 after a jobcentre he attended failed to provide the communication support he required over six years, The Guardian reported.

A judge ruled that Paul Rimmer, who is profoundly deaf, was subject to a "character assassination" by staff at the jobcentre who denied him the BSL interpreting services and video calls he needed to apply for work.

The newspaper also reported that charities representing Deaf and hard of hearing people have accused NHS England of taking too long to introduce the updated Accessible Information Standards legislation, which requires providers of NHS care to meet the communication needs of service users, carers and parents with a disability, impairment or sensory loss.

Patients with hearing loss sometimes cannot make appointments and receive test results because the health services they use have no alternative to telephone communication.