Warning over harmful excessive avenue child scans

The Society of Radiographers (SOR) has warned that some high-street clinics are placing lives in danger by permitting unqualified non-specialists to hold out child scans.

The commerce union says its members have seen examples of pregnant girls being incorrectly recognized with critical well being issues and given harmful recommendation.

Other expectant moms have been despatched to hospital after being advised an abnormality meant they would want to terminate the being pregnant to search out out their child was completely wholesome.

It is regarding that anybody utilizing an ultrasound machine can name themselves a sonographer and supply the service – usually bought as a reassurance, memento or sexting scan – earlier than a daily 20-week NHS verify.

“Once, a woman was referred to us [to hospital] From a private clinic, who was eight or nine weeks pregnant,” says Ellen Brooks, Midlands regional officer at SOR.

“The sonographer at the private clinic said there was no heartbeat and the baby was very deformed, and they sent her for an abortion.

“We started scanning the woman, who was in tears, and the scan clearly showed a nine-week pregnancy with a heartbeat. It was absolutely fine.”

A A BBC investigation in 2020 revealed similar failures to diagnose serious medical issues During the baby's personal scan.

It heard reports that women who were bleeding and in pain were accepted for scans rather than contacting their doctor.

The trade union, which is also the professional body for medical imaging, says it has seen other examples of bad practice by some private clinics:

• Major fetal abnormalities such as missed spina bifida or polycystic kidney
• Ectopic pregnancies, where the fertilized egg implants itself outside the uterus, are either not diagnosed or misdiagnosed.
• A radiographer continued to work as a private sonographer despite being fired and banned from working for the NHS due to sexual misconduct

Katie Thompson, chair of SOR, said there were some “really great” private services that offer screening with appropriately trained staff, but she was particularly concerned about the rise of pop-up clinics selling souvenir images or scans to reveal the baby's sex in shopping centers and high streets.

He said he knew of another case where a private scan late in the pregnancy did not record whether the baby was still facing down or lying down in the uterus. The mother was not immediately referred to the NHS and the baby later died.

The SoR is now calling for sonographers to become a protected job title in the UK, just like dietitians, podiatrists, art therapists or radiographers.

This would mean that only people who are appropriately qualified and registered with a regulatory body will be allowed to use that job description.

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

Individual sonographers may also decide to participate Register of Clinical TechnologistsWhich the public can search to see if certain standards have been met, but again participation is voluntary.

The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care recently carried out a public interest examination of that register and has written to the government that “the risk appears high enough” that it should consider whether stronger regulation of sonographers might be needed.

The Care Quality Commission, which inspects private clinics, said many were providing good quality care, but it was “concerned that some are not”, with concerns over staff training, consent policies and procedures for escalating abnormal findings.

Where concerns were identified in its inspection, it said it would “hold providers to account and make clear that action is needed to ensure staff are adequately trained”.

The Department of Health said in a statement that patient safety is paramount and the regulation of all health care professionals is being reviewed.

A spokesperson said, “We will fastidiously take into account any proposals from skilled our bodies on this regard.”