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Radiographers Warn High-Street Pregnancy Scan Clinics Risk Patient Safety

Professional leaders urge a protected title for sonographers to stop unqualified scanning.

Overview

  • The Society of Radiographers reports a rapid rise in private pregnancy scan outlets where people without specialist training can present themselves as sonographers.
  • A highlighted case involved a womb bleed being misread as a malformed foetus, with the patient told to induce a miscarriage despite a healthy nine‑week pregnancy.
  • Experts say clinics have missed or wrongly labelled ectopic pregnancies and failed to detect serious fetal abnormalities before routine NHS scans.
  • The SoR is calling for a legally protected sonographer title so only qualified, registered practitioners can use it and be accountable to a regulator.
  • The Department of Health and Social Care says it will consider proposals on regulation, and patients are advised to check CQC inspection history, a clinic’s track record, and trusted recommendations.