A Queensland hospital has apologised after a review into it's paediatric audiology care found serious failures and urgent follow-ups required for children.
Townsville Hospital and Health Service commissioned a report following an audit of its audiological care department, with the review handed down on Thursday.
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The review was commenced when the health service was informed in December by Children's Health Queensland (CHQ) of a pattern of "unexpected findings" in the assessment of babies who had been referred for further diagnostic audiological testing.
Two staff members within the unit were stood down in April as a result of the investigation. They remain stood down.
Some 341 children were part of the audiology program with 59 recalled and 20 requiring urgent follow ups, THHS chief executive Kieran Keyes said.
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"All of those children needing an urgent follow-up have been seen," he said on Thursday.
A review of the health service's administered cochlear implants to 59 children that may not have met appropriate clinical standards found 14 requiring urgent recalls.
All of those children have also been seen by the health authorities.
"We acknowledge the distress that this would cause for families involved because of the importance of hearing for anybody's life, particularly a developing child," Mr Keyes said.
"We remain deeply sorry for the distress that this has caused for those families.
"We understand it's been a very distressing time, we're working with each of them individually because the needs of those child's are unique to them, and we are supporting them in the ways that are relevant for their care moving forward."
The hospital brought impacted families to the clinical review and for urgent follow ups, Mr Keyes said, working through a process of open disclosure to explain what transpired and where the service went wrong.
An independent panel has been commissioned to investigate the health services procedures and how the situation came to be.
That report is expected to be complete by October.
"Certainly for the children that we brought back for urgent follow up for both cochlear implants and the broader audiology program, our concerns were validated that actually, we had let those children down," Mr Keyes said.
"And that's why we're deeply sorry for not having provided that care in the first place.
"We have commissioned independent experts who will provide the formal comment about adherence to appropriate clinical standards," Mr Keyes said.
