A NEW screening programme has been launched at Leighton Hospital to detect new born babies with hearing problems.

The Newborn Baby Hearing Screening programme can be carried out within a few hours of birth and takes just a matter of minutes to use.

The test is to be offered to all babies. Screeners bring the equipment, which is similar to an earpiece connected to a laptop computer, to the mother's bedside on the maternity ward.

The computer uses a system of 'echo sounding' and can be carried out while the baby is asleep.

Programme coordinator Lyn Robinson said: "The new test is so much more accurate than the old one and we hope to test every baby.

"However those mothers who have a home birth or go straight home after birth in hospital are invited back to have their baby screened."

Around two per cent of babies born in the UK have hearing problems and around 900 have permanent hearing loss.

The system replaces the Infant Distraction Test, which has been in place since the 1960s.

The old system was not sophisticated enough and led to a lot of babies having unnecessary additional hospital appointments, while others passed when they should not have.

Evidence is growing that if a child's hearing deficiency is detected early and appropriate treatment is also started early, there is a good chance the child will develop better language and speech skills.