Nuchal scan free on NHS this year - but are they any good?

[Rhia30]

Apparently, the nuchal scan has only this year become available free on NHS (at least in our area, I'd have thought it's national). I spoke to a obst consultant about this when I had my dating scan and he said he's totally confident with their skills at doing the anomaly scan but provided they've only just starting out the nuchal scan, they are not going to be as skilled in it and it's a bit of straw of luck who you're going to get doing the scan...and if they any good.

He wasn't definitely drumming up business for himself cos been very complimentary about NHS just I think wanted to say that if you're concerned type, NHS might raise more questions than answer.

What's your experience with NHS for 12-week-scan? I've read quite a few people here have gone privately?

Thanks guys Love this forum

Well here we're lucky in that you get referred to Kings. Where Prof Nickolaides has his NHS team that is funded by the Fetal Medicine Centre in Harley Street. So the sonographers are incredibly well-trained and do nuchals all day and every day (same kind of goes for the CVSs. Have several friends who happened to have the Prof do their nuchal scan because he was in on the day/they had specific concerns).

We had an NHS nuchal scan with both DDs and was no problem for either of ours. It had been a routine thing for them though for a while so they were well experienced in doing it. I would not hesitate if we were having another one to do this again. I suggest you go with an open mind and IF you get results that sound worrying then look for an experienced second opionion (private?) scan to either confirm or rule out any problems.

Yep thanks Was thinking that too that I'll see how things go first. I am not overly worried about nuchal scan except that it's apparently good to know beforehand if baby has Down's because of the potential associated cardiac problems. It's just because I don't know what to expect / want / demand and as they've not been routinely doing these in our local hospital, I can't totally trust they know either!

The Nuchal and blood tests have only been available in my local hospital this year too and I was the second person they did! They don't do such extensive tests as the FMC but as long as they get a good pic of the NT (and they'll keep on trying until they do) then they can do the measurement. I'd see how it goes and if you get an overall rating of 150 (or 160, can't remember which) or below then they advise further testing. If you do get 150/160 (whichever it is) or below then I would advise going to the FMC too as they do a lot more tests and can get a more accurate reading before you need to think about going for a amnio or CVS.

Good luck!

All sonographers are well trained in nuchal scanning and have to be assessed by the FMF before they can practice NT scanning. Most sonographers that work in private centres are trained by and work for the NHS too so dont think that you will get a better or more accurate scan just because you are paying.

The nuchal scan is imperfect, like all pregnancy scans it has a margin of error. HOwever it is much better in terms of margin of error than the blood test screening that used to be done, so if you want to get screened, (there are statistics about this somewhere if you're interested) it's the way to go. The blood test has a massive margin of error and a very large number of false positives.

Am pg with DC2 at the moment, and had the scan on the NHS. With DD it was still private and had the scan done by consultant. Every scan you have while pregnant, and indeed quite a lot of the care you get, will vary according to the experience and skill of the pracititioner (look at all the breech births that get missed!) so you've just got to go with what's available and if something seems wrong then speak up.

Our hospital has just introduced the nuchal on the NHS for mums over 35 but we still chose to go privately. I think the units which have been offering it for years are fine, i'd be more than happy to have it NHS at Kings for example, but for me it was too much of a risk to trust my local hospital over the FMC. The scan there was far more detailed than the NHS one would have been, it looked not only at the Nuchal but also the heart, brain and anything else that they could see at that point and also gave us a risk factor for Edwards and Pataus which are far more worrying IMO than Downs. Best of all the bloods are processed there and then so I left with my results.