Warning over high street baby scans giving ‘dangerous advice’

Some high street clinics are putting lives at risk by allowing unqualified non-specialists to carry out baby scans, the Society of Radiographers (SoR) has warned.

The union says its members have seen examples of pregnant women being misdiagnosed with serious health conditions and receiving unsafe advice.

Other pregnant women have been sent to hospital after being told an abnormality meant they would have to terminate their pregnancies to see that their baby was perfectly healthy.

He is concerned that anyone using an ultrasound machine could call themselves a sonographer and offer the service – often sold as a means of reassurance, remembrance or sexing – before the 20-week routine NHS check-up.

“Once a lady was referred to us [to hospital] from a private clinic, who was eight or nine weeks pregnant,” says Elaine Brooks, SoR’s Midlands regional manager.

“The sonographer at the private clinic said there was no heartbeat and the baby was very, very malformed, and they sent him for an induced miscarriage.

“We started scanning the lady, who was in tears, and on the scan there was a beautiful nine-week pregnancy with a heartbeat. Everything was perfectly fine.”

A 2020 BBC investigation revealed similar failures to diagnose serious medical problems during private baby exams.

There have been reports of women who were bleeding and in pain being accepted for tests, rather than being asked to contact their doctor.

The union, which is also the professional body for medical imaging, claims to have observed other examples of poor practices on the part of certain private clinics, including:

• Major fetal abnormalities such as spina bifida or polycystic kidneys are missed
• Ectopic pregnancies, where the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.
• Radiologist continues to work as a private sonographer despite being struck off and banned from working for the NHS over sexual misconduct

SoR chair Katie Thompson said there were “really wonderful” private services offering checks with properly trained staff, but she was particularly concerned about the growth of pop-up clinics in shopping centers and on high streets selling souvenir pictures or scans to reveal the baby’s sex.

She said she was aware of another case where a private scan late in pregnancy did not record that the baby was still breech or lying low in the uterus. The mother was not immediately referred to the NHS and the baby later died.

The SoR now calls for sonographer to become a protected job title in the UK on par with dietician, podiatrist, art therapist or radiologist.

This would mean that only those who are suitably qualified and registered with a regulatory body would be allowed to use this job description.

Many private sonographers are already qualified midwives or radiologists, and dedicated training is also available, although this is not currently a legal requirement.

Thompson says moms-to-be should ask a private clinic if their staff has taken a course accredited by the Consortium of Sonographic Education (CASE).

Patients can also carry out other basic checks – for example asking how long the clinic has been operating, whether it has been registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England and when it was last inspected by the regulator.

Thompson also suggests checking reviews and asking friends, family, midwives and GPs for advice and recommendations.

Individual sonographers may decide to register on the Registry of Clinical Technologists, which the public can then view to see if certain standards have been met, but, again, participation is voluntary.

The Health and Social Care Professional Standards Authority recently carried out a public interest test of this register and wrote to the government saying the “risks appear sufficiently high” that it should consider whether tighter regulation of sonographers might be necessary.

The CQC said many clinics were providing good quality care, but it “remains concerned that some are not”, due to concerns about staff training, consent policies and procedures for reporting unusual results.

Where its inspections identify problems, it said it would “hold providers to account and make clear that action is needed to ensure staff are properly trained”.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said patient safety was paramount and regulations for all healthcare professionals were being reviewed.

“We will carefully consider any proposals from professional bodies on this subject,” added a spokesperson.