Mr WARREN - 2006-05-04
In May last year, this government made an election commitment to establish free hearing screening for all babies born in the Territory. Can you please tell the Assembly how Budget 2006-07 delivers on this promise as part of this government’s ongoing commitment to child and maternal health?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Goyder for his question. It is a very important area, and one which I have a long history of involvement with, particularly work with otitis media in my time as a school principal and adult educator out bush. More and more evidence is emerging of the impact of significant hearing loss on a person - everything from their education outcomes, employment prospects, even their involvement with the criminal justice system - all of those things can be related to hearing deficiency in cases where that has not been detected and dealt with. Normal language development depends on the early detection of significant hearing loss and appropriate intervention.
The numbers of babies born with significant hearing loss in the Northern Territory is at a prevalence of about one to two per 1000 newborns; approximately three to eight children each year. The cost of detecting a child with profound deafness in the neonatal period is significantly lower than the cost of managing a child diagnosed later, who has special education and other needs.
Funding for the universal neonatal hearing service includes a project manager, plus hearing testing equipment at five hospitals, along with consumables and training. In participating hospitals, every newborn baby’s parent will be offered the screening test for their baby. It involves a one to five minute test while the baby is asleep. It measures the physiological response in the audiological pathway – gee, I love this sort of language, it is great - with clicking sounds and provides a pass or fail result.
That work will start next week at the Royal Darwin Hospital,Hospital and other hospitals as soon as the equipment and people can be put in place. We will pick up hearing deficiencies as soon as possible after birth and deal with them where we see deficiencies present.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Goyder for his question. It is a very important area, and one which I have a long history of involvement with, particularly work with otitis media in my time as a school principal and adult educator out bush. More and more evidence is emerging of the impact of significant hearing loss on a person - everything from their education outcomes, employment prospects, even their involvement with the criminal justice system - all of those things can be related to hearing deficiency in cases where that has not been detected and dealt with. Normal language development depends on the early detection of significant hearing loss and appropriate intervention.
The numbers of babies born with significant hearing loss in the Northern Territory is at a prevalence of about one to two per 1000 newborns; approximately three to eight children each year. The cost of detecting a child with profound deafness in the neonatal period is significantly lower than the cost of managing a child diagnosed later, who has special education and other needs.
Funding for the universal neonatal hearing service includes a project manager, plus hearing testing equipment at five hospitals, along with consumables and training. In participating hospitals, every newborn baby’s parent will be offered the screening test for their baby. It involves a one to five minute test while the baby is asleep. It measures the physiological response in the audiological pathway – gee, I love this sort of language, it is great - with clicking sounds and provides a pass or fail result.
That work will start next week at the Royal Darwin Hospital,Hospital and other hospitals as soon as the equipment and people can be put in place. We will pick up hearing deficiencies as soon as possible after birth and deal with them where we see deficiencies present.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016