Improvements for suspended NHS audiology service

A failing NHS audiology department has made "significant improvements" after it was revealed thousands of patients had been impacted by long treatment delays.

Audiology services at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (DBTH) were suspended in autumn 2024 due to safety and quality concerns.

Since then, services have partly resumed with the trust reporting waiting times for new referrals had dropped from 52 weeks to 22 weeks and for hearing aid fittings from 104 weeks to 15.

Founder of Doncaster Audiology Action Group, Maggie Lockhart, described the improvements as "shoots of hope" but said the department still had "a long way to go".

In 2024, the hospital trust found problems as part of a national paediatric audiology improvement programme, which it then tried to mitigate.

It was later discovered that improvements were not fully in place and that IT issues posed a "significant level of risk on service delivery", resulting in a temporary service suspension.

An internal review published in November, laid bare issues around weak oversight, poor data management and leadership gaps.

The BBC previously spoke to several patients who said they had been left without hearing aids for years or had been waiting for a long time for an up-to-date hearing test.

According to the trust, waiting lists for audiology services have fallen for both adults and children since December.

Adult numbers dropped from 9,630 to 8,407 while paediatric cases decreased from 1,984 to 1,634.

Adult patients waiting for a first appointment fell sharply from 891 to 230, a 75% decrease. For children, the number declined from 1,144 to 909.

The trust said waiting times for diagnostics and hearing aid fittings had reduced significantly, and as of this month, it expects most new referrals to be seen within six weeks, with fittings within eight weeks of diagnosis.

The trust said it was aiming to ensure all waiting patients were seen within this financial year.

A spokesperson for DBTH said: "Over the past year, we have taken action to address long-standing pressures in our audiology service by increasing clinic capacity, bringing in additional support and improving how we work.

"We recognise that waits for follow-up review appointments remain too long, but this is improving, with over 1,000 patients seen this month and next.

"While there is more to do, the service is moving in the right direction."

Lockhart, who herself waited nearly five years for a NHS hearing aid before going private, said there was "no doubt" efforts were being made to tackle backlogs.

"There is still a long way to go, but there are shoots of hope and people are being seen," she said.

Sally Jameson, one of Doncaster's MPs who raised the issues with audiology in parliament, said she recent work gave patients "some reassurance" that action was being taken to improve services.

"Doncaster residents deserve an audiology service that it fit for purpose and allows them to live day-to-day with dignity," she said.

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