National newborn hearing screening to be rolled out

THE first phase of a national newborn hearing screening programme will commence in Cork after Easter, with the full roll-out expected to be completed by the end of next year.

The move, following a major review of audiology services, has been welcomed by the state’s largest lobby group for deaf people.

The review, published by the Health Service Executive, outlines the results of years of shocking neglect of the country’s audiology services.

DeafHear that made a submission to the review, said it welcomed the long awaited moves to reform the services.

“These are the crucial steps to better life outcomes for people with hearing loss, particularly deaf children,” said the organisation’s spokesman, Brendan Lennon.

HSE national primary care services manager Brian Murphy said the screening programme at Cork University Hospital was due to commence on April 26.

Just under €2 million in funding for the first phase has been provided in the health authority’s service plan for 2011.

Mr Murphy said it was planned to expand the screening programme across HSE South at the end of the year and planned to extend it across the country by the end of 2012.

“We have around 74,000 births every year and we would be anticipating that, certainly, within two years, all babies born in the country would be availing of a neo-natal screen,” he said.

According to DeafHear, about two children per week are born with moderate to profound hearing loss.

In CUH there are approximately 8,900 births every year.

Prof John Bamford, honorary professor of audiology at the University of Manchester, who chaired the review, said he was involved in a similar screening programme in Britain that took six years to roll out.

He pointed out that total coverage in Britain was achieved in March 2006.

Prof Bamford said it would be “too risky” to roll out the programme nationally in one go.

“A two-year time frame, to my mind, seems to be appropriate,” he said.

The report points out that children with severe and profound hearing loss are having to wait two years for a hearing aid while children with moderate hearing loss are having to wait until they are five years old.

The introduction of newborn screening would dramatically improve the situation, said Prof Bamford. Hearing problems would be identified at about three months.

While screening would be carried out on newborns, there were good clinical reasons why follow-up tests were not conducted for about four weeks in most cases, he said.

Prof Bamford said it was important to begin intervention before the child was six months of age.

He said the “consequences” of late diagnosis generally lasted into adulthood.