Serious safety failings exposed at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
PLUS: An update on heritage trams and their return to Blackpool
Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
Today we reveal that experts have been called to review treatment given to all youngsters at the children’s hearing service over the last five years.
Paediatric audiology services have been suspended after an inspection revealed a number of serious shortcomings. Patients could be called back to have their treatment reviewed as a result.
We also have the latest on Blackpool’s heritage trams, which are now slated for an Autumn return after almost a year of issues which have included senior staff being suspended, redundancies and rows over why they were suspended in the first place.
Key service in Blackpool suspended after inspection exposes serious safety failings
By Michael Holmes
Experts have been called in by health bosses in Blackpool to review all youngsters treated by the children’s hearing service over the past five years, The Blackpool Lead can reveal.
It comes as key paediatric audiology services have been suspended after an inspection exposed serious safety failings, including under-qualified staff and missing equipment.
The immediate halt - impacting children under three in acute care, those under four in community services and the school-aged service - followed an initial assessment against national Improving Quality in Physiological Services standards and a follow-up visit by the local integrated care board, which is responsible for organising and paying for residents’ health care.
A task force has been set up and an action plan put in place, NHS papers show, with patients facing the possibility of being called back for further treatment if the five-year review uncovers any issues.
“The main concerns were regarding training and competency,” documents say.
The acute under-three service was due to be paused immediately “until shadowing takes place and the required equipment installed”, while the under-four and school-age services was to be paused before reopening under “clinical supervision”, papers add.
The service is run by the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Victoria Hospital in Whinney Heys Road.
It is managed, according to the trust’s website, by a nurse-led team at St Anne’s Primary Care Centre in Durham Avenue, and is the “first port of call where concerns arise regarding a child’s hearing”.
The site says: “Our aim is to provide a high-quality, safe and effective hearing service to children and young people with hearing difficulties.
“We provide hearing tests to support the identification of childhood hearing impairment.”
It adds: “We offer an efficient, friendly service to children and young people with hearing difficulties across Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre, offering community-based diagnostic testing in clinics.
“We also accept referrals from all health professionals and schools. Children referred with a hearing concern will be seen within six weeks.”
Testing is carried out at the Whitegate Drive Health Centre, St Anne’s PCC, Cleveleys Health Centre and Fleetwood Hospital.
The service also monitors and reviews children with unilateral sensory hearing loss, Down’s Syndrome or cleft lip or palate, as well as providing an ear-mould service for aided youngsters.
The Blackpool Lead asked the trust what specific risks were identified, how many children have been affected and whether affected families will be contacted directly.
It also asked what criteria will determine if patients are recalled and how many - if any - children have been identified so far as being harmed by the failings.
And it asked how many workers were found to be under-qualified or lacking the needed training and supervision - and about any disciplinary action, retraining or formal performance reviews.
The trust was further asked if it will publish the full assessment findings and subsequent action plan - and what reassurances it can give to parents that the reinstated service - once reopened - will be safe and properly staffed.
A spokesperson for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Earlier this year we began a review of our paediatric audiology services as part of the Paediatric Hearing Services Improvement Programme, which was established by NHS England in response to issues found in paediatric audiology services nationally.
“We have taken the decision to pause our community-based children’s hearing services in Blackpool while we review cases to understand whether any of our patients may need further assessment and this work is ongoing.
“Once this review is complete, in the coming weeks we will be contacting the families of any children we believe may need further assessment. We’re sorry for any concerns that families and carers may have. This will take a little time but we are determined to get this right for patients.
“In the meantime, whilst the community children’s service is paused, families who need audiology support will be seen by the audiology service at Blackpool Victoria Hospital to make sure they get the help they need.”
The Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), which since July 2022 has been responsible for planning NHS services, including primary care, community pharmacy and those previously planned by clinical commissioning groups, was also asked about its involvement.
ICBs have been tasked with implementing a national review and recall process after children’s hearing services were found to be lacking in both England and Scotland.
NHS hearing services in children’s departments across England were scrutinised in 2023 and 2024 after concerns were raised in Scotland, with the Paediatric Hearing Services Improvement Programme launched to address systemic problems - including misdiagnosis and the need for system-wide improvements - and oversee remedial action.
Kathryn Lord, the Lancashire ICB’s acting chief nurse, said: “The ICB’s ongoing involvement is to provide support to the trust as they implement their service improvement plans to ensure that every child receives the high-quality and timely care they deserve, and to provide assurance both regionally and nationally on the improvements and progress made.”
The government has since appointed Dr Camilla Kingdon to chair an independent review into children’s services.
The Kingdon review will consider NHS England’s response to service failures and see what lessons can be learned.
A call for evidence - where parents could give their input - closed last month.
Children with hearing impairment can struggle with speech and language development, “causing distress for them and their parents and potential problems in later life”, NHS England’s national media director Stephen Powis and the NHS’s chief scientific officer Sue Hill said last year.
They said in a blog: “In many cases, we can treat this by intervening early - including through cochlear impacts, hearing aids and speech and language therapy - which can largely reverse the effects on speech and language.
“For these treatments to be effective it is vital children receive a diagnosis and support early, which is the aim of the newborn hearing screening programme, which tests around 99% of the over half a million children born every year in England within their first three months.
“If the screening test suggests it is needed, an appointment should be made for the baby to attend an audiology clinic to see a specialist for more tests and - where needed - a treatment plan to be made.”
The blog, published in October, continued: “Over the past year, we have concentrated on two main areas of work.
“Firstly, finding the best way to review, recall and reassess affected babies and children so we can give them the diagnosis and treatment they need.
“At the same time, working with local NHS bodies to improve services and the skills of our audiology staff so that families can have more confidence in services in the future.
“We have made a lot of progress. By August of this year, we finished our review of all 140 paediatric audiology services.
“We found 90 require more detailed focus and support from clinical experts to find out which babies and children need to be recalled for assessment.
“This means the children most in need will be seen first.
“Local NHS organisations, ICBs, will lead this work, some of which has already begun, and NHS England is funding a group of specially trained senior scientists to oversee and input to the reviews.”
In January, The Blackpool Lead reported on an independent review at the Vic after concerns were raised about its new fetal medicine service, which provides care for unborn children and their mothers.
It followed several so-called “rapid reviews” - investigations into potential causes for concern - with “similar emerging themes” related to the service, including ultrasound scanning and preterm clinical pathways, identified.
The hospital has in recent years been rocked by several controversies, including a poison plot on the stroke unit and the unsolved murder of a grandmother.
Last month, The Blackpool Lead told how a pensioner died of a heart attack at the Vic after being left waiting almost two weeks for an urgent bypass operation that should have been done within seven days.
And it reported on the conviction of top heart surgeon Amal Bose for groping five female co-workers.
The 55-year-old was described as “the root cause of a toxic and sexualised culture” at the hospital.
He will be sentenced in September.
Recommended reads this week
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🌊 Tributes have been paid to one of Blackpool RNLI's 'most respected volunteers' following his death last week. Phil Denham was an award-winning volunteer who retired last year 'after an extraordinary 55 years of service'. The dad-of-three joined as a crew member on the lifeboats in 1969 and later qualified as an inshore lifeboat helm.
🎸 Legendary Scottish rockers Simple Minds brought Lytham Festival 2025 to a spectacular close on Sunday night, rounding off an unforgettable weekend at the North West’s biggest live music event. Full gallery from the Gazette.
Heritage trams aiming for October return after year of redundancies, safety issues and suspensions
By Richard Hunt and Luke Beardsworth
Blackpool’s iconic heritage trams are on track for a return to service on the seafront this autumn as work is underway to get the trams and track ready.
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