Private scan

[Vogue1992]

I had a private Gender and Growth scan on Saturday (16w 2d), I just wondered if they are qualified to pick up on anything that could potentially be wrong and if they would refer you or would they leave that to your 20 week NHS scan?

It really depends on the place/sonographer. I know lots of private places use NHS sonographers/midwives who are picking up extra work, but there are places that use sonographers who are not qualified to the same standard. You would like to think that they would pick up any major anomalies and discuss with you/refer to the NHS, but depending on the place, you might also be told that the scans are just for having a look at the baby and not to diagnose/detect medical problems.
From experience, the private scans where you can find out the sex of the baby are usually quite quick (5-10 mins depending on how awkward of a position the baby is in) where they have a general quick check of the major structures, but the NHS 20 week scan is very thorough (more like 30 minutes) because they record a lot of measurements for you to check for anomalies.

They should be qualified sonographers, and they have a duty of care to tell you about anything they are concerned about.

They aren’t really looking in great detail for any abnormalities - my experience of a 16 week scan is it’s much more about an “experience”... letting you listen to the heartbeat and you watching baby on the screen.

However if there was something wrong and they noticed, they would have to tell you.

I think it's really hit and miss. A lot of the time they have the same qualifications as the NHS sonographers (some of them are NHS sonographers) but that doesn't always mean they will tell you everything. E.g. at early reassurance scan at 8wks they told me measurements and that there was a heartbeat and I left thinking everything was fine when actually there was quite a high risk because the measurement was a week behind and the heartrate was also on the low side. I lost the baby a week later, discovered at a follow up private scan (I'd had some spotting and was concerned). At that point they did refer me to NHS. Unlikely to be anything that extreme past 1st trimester of course.