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NHS Audiology Scandal – Dr Camilla Kingdon Review: Final Report Published
Laura Vincent Evans
A review commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care has found that to date, nearly 300 children have been identified as having suffered harm due to serious systemic shortcomings in the new born hearing screening programme launched in 2001. As the implementation of the ‘review and recall’ system set up to tackle this issue is currently at different stages across England, this number is likely to increase.
It is estimated that 34 million children worldwide have disabling hearing loss requiring rehabilitation, and one of the key findings of the new Kingdon review is that failed or late identification of deafness has a profound impact on babies, children, and their families. For example, the infant brain is primed to develop neural pathways when stimulated. Sound is known to be a powerful a stimulus and as such, a deaf child's opportunity to learn and interpret sound, and thus develop spoken language, is reduced. The Kingdon review found that children who have delayed detection of deafness are expected to require more extensive care to support their learning and development outcomes and may require additional care later in life. It is therefore crucial for health practitioners and services to be well-equipped in the early identification and delivery of treatment.
There is a critical ‘window of opportunity’ in childhood development for learning to interpret sound and therefore learning to speak or sign. The longer time goes on, the smaller this window becomes. Research carried out by the World Health Organisation has shown that successful identification of children who are born deaf or acquire deafness within the first months of life who subsequently receive appropriate interventions within six months of age, are assessed to have developed their spoken language skills to the same level as their able-hearing peers by the age of 5 years old.
This reinforces the importance of children’s hearing services functioning effectively to provide crucial time-critical diagnosis and treatment. When they do not, children miss out on months or years of support, leading to developmental delays which take years to catch up.
One cause of deafness in babies is congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) which is an infection that can impact hearing. For babies born with CMV, treatment may improve their hearing outcome, provided the infection is treated within four weeks of birth. The Kingdon review acknowledged that whilst many NHS trusts carry out newborn hearing screening within days of a child being born, at least one NHS trust was understood to not conduct newborn hearing screen until eight weeks of age by which point the window to administer effective treatment has passed. This raises the concern of inconsistent policies within the NHS across different trusts.
The latest guidelines for audiology screening in children under the age of 12 recommend formal assessment followed by reassessment within three months, but busy waiting lists for ENT and audiology services mean that this is not being achieved. Long waiting times for care, and concerns over the quality of care received, have meant that parents and carers have felt the only option for their child was to pay for care in the independent healthcare sector. This pathway is unaffordable for a large number of families, with many hoping for cancellations to free up appointment slots.
New opportunities for the treatment of CMV and gene therapies are emerging, with studies demonstrating success for children with congenital deafness caused by the OTOF gene, which affects essential proteins in the inner ear used for hearing. Whilst these developments give hope for the treatment of certain causes of deafness, the current issues highlighted within children’s hearing services may hold back progress.
Looking Forward
The review identified recommendations to improve the systemic failures and ensure that fewer children are affected in future. The three themes considered for improvements are:
- Understanding the scale of the problem;
- Placing these services on a secure footing for the future;
- Applying the lessons learned to similar services.
More extensive reviews into different audiology services across England will be required to identify areas that need the most improvement. Increased funding will also be needed in addition to extra training for audiologists and community hubs to offer a greater number of professionals who can provide diagnosis and treatment.
With NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care set to merge in 2026 and 2027, one aim is to cut duplication and improve accountability, which will hopefully allow for improvements to children's hearing services.
Legal Claims
We hope that the recommendations identified in the report will be enacted to ensure that similar service failures in paediatric audiology do not occur again.
In certain situations, for example where there has been a misdiagnosis of an audiology issue or a failure to undertake tests or refer for specialist review, and a child has suffered harm as a result, a claim for clinical negligence may be possible. If you have concerns about your child’s audiology care and want to discuss whether they may have a legal claim, please do not hesitate to contact our supportive and friendly team for a no obligation discussion.
About the authors
Laura is an Associate in the Medical Negligence & Personal Injury team, having qualified in September 2022.
Amber is a Trainee Solicitor currently undertaking her first seat in the Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury team. She joined Kingsley Napley in September 2025.
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