OFT to look at £30,000 bill for ear implant

The parents of a six-year-old girl who was born profoundly deaf are complaining to the Office of Fair Trading after the NHS refused to provide her with a second "bionic ear" implant, leaving them with a £30,000 bill for the operation.

Six-year-old Sarosha Byrne from Nottinghamshire will today undergo an operation to receive the cochlear implant to fully repair her hearing. But her primary care trust has refused to foot the bill in what her parents say is a postcode lottery affecting more than 3,000 children.

The case is now the subject of an OFT inquiry after her parents complained that Cochlear, the multinational company which makes the implants, is charging £5,000 more for the device in the UK than it does in other countries.

The cochlear implant costs £12,563 in the UK compared with £7,770 in Sweden. Parents here also have to pay £19,000 for the operation to insert it.

Dominic Byrne, Sarosha's father, said his daughter was being denied the chance to be freed of her disability."The first implant made a huge difference and allowed her to attend a regular school without any special educational requirements. She needs the second one to properly allow her to participate in classes and keep up with her peers."

The cochlear implant was introduced in the UK in 1989. At first people had only one implant, but increasingly around the world two are given. Campaigners say the second is to help people to understand the direction a noise is coming from.

Nottinghamshire PCT says that the case for a second implant is unproven, though children in other areas now routinely receive two.

Sue Archibald of the Ear Foundation, which campaigns for cochlear implants, said that 3,000 children have so far received single implants and 300 more did every year. "The evidence for bilateral implants is there; colleagues in Finland can't believe that we would only offer one. Two ears are clearly better than one."

Mr Byrne said: "It is a big sum but it is a very important investment for our daughter. It is a few years more on the mortgage for us but it is a lifetime of better hearing for her." A spokesperson for Cochlear said the company recognised that there is a postcode lottery for adults and children receiving cochlear implants on the NHS, because of a shortage of funding for implants and differing priorities of different PCTs. "Cochlear sympathises with the unfairness that this creates and the anger this causes patients. However, these matters are outside our control."