Is paying for a digital scan photo now standard on the NHS?

[renovationqueen]

I had my 12 week scan last week and I'm still reeling at the cost of the pictures!

First time parents so obviously all very exciting and we were so giddy that everything was proceeding as expected. When we were finished with the scan the sonographer gave us a sheet with a QR code to scan for pictures.

I scanned it while waiting for my blood test and it was £8.50 per image (!!) which I thought was outrageous but obviously we paid for our favourite one. Only to then find out it was just a digital image that we 'can print at home'. I was so disappointed to not get a physical scan copy.

I know that each trust is different - have I just got really unlucky? 😂

We paid £5 for a single blurry curled up paper photo 8 years ago, so I'm not sure 8.50 for a choice of digital images is worse. I don't think we showed anyone the print other than PIL as we went there after and were giving them some wedding photos they'd asked for so I slipped it in the pile for MIL to find

I've only ever been given printed pictures, for free. Had no idea this was a thing on the NHS!

Me neither - I just assumed that everyone got a little photo given to them after the scan but obviously not!

My nhs trust is trying to save £2.9 million pounds a month. People are being made redundant. We are working unsafely with a lack of staff. £8 for a photo will go somewhere towards the savings we have to make. A quick google tells
me my local private scan place will
charge you £45 for a set of 5 pictures.

Just had a scan and it’s £5 a photo at ours. You do get a print out version though. The sonographer printed photo of our baby, made us go to the card kiosk to pay and then come back with our receipt! It was so bloody awkward

I paid £3 31 years ago! £8 ain't so bad. And I guess people like to share these things digitally now anyway.

Even 30 years ago you had to pay so definitely nothing new.

Wow! That's a lot! 10 years ago I think I paid £1 for a print out (no option of digital copy), which they said was the cost of the paper.

It was a fiver for a Polaroid 34 years ago! So £8.50 sounds a bargain. Our maternity unit donated a proportion to a charity i am sure it was BLISS, so maybe your unit does the same

I paid I think £6 for 1 photo but the sonographer gave me more

A photo is a “nice to have”, it’s not medically necessary.

a charge is reasonable. There will likely be costs to the department for the hosting/payment systems.

digital copies are surely better than paper? especially the badly printed Polaroids. I got printed copies and I lost them years ago.

Compared to the price of school photos, it’s a bargain.

For my two pregnancies (both in the last 5 years) I was given a few pictures for free, but I have heard of people having to pay so I don’t think that’s that unusual. £8.50 per image does seem a lot though and I’ve never heard of having to print them off at home.

You get one printed photo free at my trust. It used to be 3 different images for £10, which I think is still an option if you want extra.
It obviously just varies hugely by trust.

I don't remember how much it was but we were charged for photos when I was expecting in 1998.

Yes.

It’s not a fun, free for all. They’re diagnostic tests

I think you're either unlucky or we got lucky. At my trust we're told to bring £5 for a photo but the sonographers just give them to you in the room.

Either way, in the grand scheme of medical care photos are not a priority for the NHS so I don't think it's unreasonable that these would be a way to cut costs

Why they would ever give these out free of charge is beyond me. It isn't the job of the NHS to provide tacky little mementos of Baby's First Scan.

Even providing them for a fee is tacky. But I guess it is an easy way of supplementing income.

Why do you see them as tacky @MyThreeWords ?

My children are 21 and 6 and I paid for scan NHS scan pictures for both of them.

Tacky little mementos is a bit harsh, I think it's lovely to be able to take a picture home. I put a copy in my mum's birthday card to tell her we were expecting.

It's the sentimentalising of something that is essentially a piece of medical information. Nothing wrong with parents being very invested in the image, but the practice of making them available feels a bit more appropriate to Moonpig.com (and the like) than to a professional medical environment.

It was £4 15 years ago, although I did get two extra for free!

It’s £5 where I live and I have always paid the same even when I lived in a different city. The old city I lived in would give one photo for £5 but where I live now we get 3 printed for £5

I was asked to pay a couple of pounds - and that was 25 years ago!