Clinical Perspective A reflection on implementing newborn hearing screening at a public hospital in South Africa

Hannah M. Munian, Ongeziwe Ntutuka, Sadna Balton

About the author(s) Hannah M. Munian, Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa
Ongeziwe Ntutuka, Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sadna Balton, Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa

The occurrence of congenital deafness averages around 6 per 1000 births. With advancements in the objective methods of assessing hearing status of newborns, the adverse effects of hearing impairment can be limited by early referral into services once children are identified through universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) programme. Early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) focuses on the overall journey of an individual from identification and diagnosis to intervention. The South African government recognises the value of UNHS; however, UNHS has not been adopted within the South African public health sector that services the greater population.

Contribution: Through reflection of the authors own experiences, they sought to describe the processes followed in implementing a newborn hearing screening programme for the purpose of EHDI in neonates at a public central hospital. The aim is to provide a rich, first-person account of the authors experience in implementing newborn hearing screening. A reflexive approach is used to describe the processes and the lessons learnt in managing a large-scale project, highlighting the importance of collaboration, teamwork, and adaptability to try new models of service delivery. The authors journey may help to initiate similar projects thereby increasing access to newborn hearing screening.

newborn hearing screening; early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI); universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS); reflection; implementation; South Africa.

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