Radiographers sound alarm over high street baby scans

Leading radiographers have raised serious concerns about “unsafe” high street clinics offering baby scans without a trained specialist after reports of babies being misdiagnosed as having died and medical emergencies being missed.

- ELLA PICKOVER

The Society of Radiographers (SoR) said there has been a proliferation of high street clinics offering pregnancy scans. It said anyone with an ultrasound machine can call themselves a sonographer, but other health professionals must be qualified and regulated.

When people perform scans without proper training it can lead to "unsafe" situations for the mother and baby, the SoR said.

It highlighted examples including:

• A blood clot being misdiagnosed as a malformed foetus, with the mother advised to have an induced miscarriage despite the fact the baby was healthy.

• Ectopic pregnancies - which can lead to life-threatening outcomes - being missed.

• Missed abnormalities that should have been detected.

• A misdiagnosed problem with a cervix, with the practitioner advising the mother to have two weeks of bed rest - which is "outdated advice".

The SoR is calling for sonographers to have a "protected" job title, which means only those with qualifications and registered with a regulatory body would be able to use the title.