Diane-Marie Banks
Introduction
Diane-Marie Banks is a hearing aid dispenser who was registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) under registration number HAD02821. On 19 May 2026, a review panel of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) found her fitness to practise remained impaired and directed that she be struck off the register, with effect stated as 23 May 2026, replacing her second period of suspension. The proved concerns involved non-compliant hearing tests for nine service users, inadequate or incorrect hearing aids for four, and missed onward referrals for four, between 2017 and 2020. The panel expressly did NOT prove allegations of fabricated audiograms or dishonesty.
Background Information
The published record identifies Banks only as a hearing aid dispenser holding HCPC registration HAD02821. It does not name an employer or a high-street chain, and it does not describe her training or career; this page does not guess at any of them. The original allegations covered hearing tests, allegedly fabricated audiograms, hearing-aid provision, ear fittings, impressions and onward referrals between 2017 and 2020. Her MedicWatch profile records her most recent published outcome as striking off following review, decided on 19 May 2026 by the Health and Care Professions Council, while noting her registration status as not yet verified and directing readers to the official HCPC register for current details. MedicWatch aggregates regulator outcomes and states it does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Regulatory findings, not a criminal case. The findings below come from HCPTS panels applying the civil standard — the balance of probabilities. They are regulator findings, not criminal convictions, and no criminal proceedings appear in the published record. The original panel expressly did NOT prove the fabrication and dishonesty allegations, nor the ear-fitting and impression particulars.
The original allegations concerned hearing tests, allegedly fabricated audiograms, hearing-aid provision, ear fittings, impressions and onward referrals between 2017 and 2020. The original panel proved non-compliant audiometry for nine service users, inadequate or incorrect hearing aids for four, and missed onward referrals for four, finding misconduct. It found the fabrication and dishonesty allegations not proved, and also did not prove the ear-fitting and aural-impression allegations and the remaining service-user particulars.
An earlier review on 22 May 2025 had found Banks remained impaired because she had not engaged with the regulator or shown insight or remediation after the audiology practice failures, and had extended her suspension by 12 months. At the 19 May 2026 review — after two periods of suspension — the panel found no evidence of remediation, insight or maintained professional skills, continuing impairment on both the personal and public components, and concluded further suspension was no longer appropriate. It replaced suspension with striking off, stated to apply from 23 May 2026.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The published record contains no press coverage of the hearings and no public statements — none from Banks or from any other party. The concrete consequences recorded in the determinations are the original suspension, the May 2025 extension, and the review panel’s striking-off direction of 19 May 2026 with effect from 23 May 2026.
Current Status
Banks was struck off the HCPC register by the review panel’s decision of 19 May 2026, stated to apply from 23 May 2026. Her MedicWatch profile records striking off as her most recent published outcome, notes her registration status as not yet verified, and directs readers to the official HCPC register for her current position. The escalation followed two completed periods of suspension in which the panel found the underlying clinical concerns had not been addressed.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Striking off ended Banks’s registration to practise as a hearing aid dispenser in the UK unless a future restoration application succeeds. The panel’s route to that outcome matters for how the case is understood: the misconduct was clinical — audiometry outside standards, wrong aids, missed referrals — and the dishonesty allegations that often dominate such cases were expressly not proved. What converted suspension into erasure was non-engagement: across both suspensions the panels found no insight, no remediation and no evidence of maintained skills, a trajectory the 2026 review judged could no longer be managed by anything short of removal.
Beyond the determinations, the published record contains no information about her circumstances since the decision, and nothing on this page should be read as going beyond it.
Sources
- *MedicWatch, “HCPTS orders Diane-Marie Banks struck off following suspension review” (HCPC determination, decision dated 19 May 2026) — source
- *MedicWatch, “HCPTS extends Diane-Marie Banks suspension for 12 months” (HCPC determination, decision dated 22 May 2025) — source
- *MedicWatch, “Diane-Marie Banks — Hearing aid dispenser · Health and Care Professions Council HAD02821” — source