Parents say they have been left in tears and are desperate to know whether or not the health of their children has been put at risk as Townsville University Hospital investigates problems at its paediatric audiology unit.
Hospital chief executive Kieran Keyes announced on Wednesday clinical standards may not have been met at the unit and two staff members had been stood down as part of routine practice.
The Hospital and Health Service is reviewing the hearing test results of 341 babies who were treated by the unit since January 2020 and the cases of 59 children with cochlear implants.
Airlie Beach mother Clare Sarton said she received a text message on Wednesday saying the treatment of her two-year-old daughter Andie, who was fitted with cochlear implants at the hospital in February 2021, was being reviewed.
"I was in tears when they first told me … we just don't have any answers," Ms Sarton said.
"They said there were anomalies in lots of cases."
Mr Keyes said Queensland Health had made attempts to contact all families impacted by the review and apologised for distress caused to them.
"I'd again like to sincerely apologise and reassure families our focus remains on supporting these children and their families," he said.
Mr Keyes said the clinical concerns only related to the programming of the children's implants.
"There have been no concerns identified about the surgical implantation or manufacturing of the device these children are wearing," he said.
"Children should continue wearing their sound processor as usual."
Ms Sarton said the past few days had been traumatic for her family and the hospital had not been able to provide her with any information relating to her daughter's case.
Ms Sarton said she had subsequently contacted the hospital for more information but didn't feel supported.
"It's quite a traumatic experience as a parent.
"It's a lot of grief. It feels like a loss."
She said her daughter had worked hard on her speech development.
"We didn't know any different," she said.
"Certainly, there was no reason to challenge anything."
Proserpine parent Rianna Read received the same text message on Wednesday regarding her three-year-old daughter, who is classed as deaf in one ear.
"At the beginning I had no idea what it was even about because my daughter has had lots of procedures there," Ms Read said.
"It's a really stressful time for our family at the moment."
She was contacted by a staff member but said the information was "very, very vague".
"I actually had to ask him what was being investigated," she said.
"As you could imagine I had a thousand questions and he couldn't answer any of them.
"My heart rate was up because she was a newborn when she had these procedures done.
"It was just very upsetting."
Ms Read said she was referred to the paediatric unit after her daughter failed the newborn hearing test and had a procedure in May 2020.
"I'm very disappointed that we don't have any more information and that we have to now wait potentially two months to find out what's actually happened," she said.
In a statement, Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said the review was complex and needed to be done on a case-by-case basis.
"It is important we do not pre-empt the investigation's findings," Ms D'Ath said.
Mr Keyes said the hospital understood the implications the review could have for the children.
"Which is why it's incredibly important the care delivered to each child is reviewed carefully," he said.
"In Queensland, we have a very small pool of expert audiologists and we have called on all of these experts to help us to complete this review as quickly as possible."
