When is too late for a 12 weeks scan? Support please.

[knittingmum]

I'm so upset this morning. I'm 11+1 weeks pg and I've been waiting and waiting for a date for my 12 week scan from the hospital. I rang them this morning and they tell me they have no record of me on their system, no letter from my GP etc etc (I went to my GP at 6 weeks) The GP surgery tell me their records show that a letter has been sent. Anyway, the hospital tell me the first scan they can give me is when I will be 15 weeks! I've told them this is not acceptable and now I'm waiting for them to get back to me, hopefully with an alternative.

Do any of you have experiences like this? Am I right in thinking that 15 weeks is too late for this? What are the disadvantages of a first scan so late?

Anybody have any advice, I'm feeling so let down already and this is only the beginning of the process.

Any support please?

Do you know if your hospital does Nuchal scans, or is it a dating scan? Nuchal scans have to be done between 10 and 14 weeks (roughly), but lots of hospitals don't do them as standard nhs provision, so will do a dating scan anywhere between 12 and 16 weeks. Our local hospital is like this, and so I had a private nuchal scan (combined with blood tests) - it was very thorough (much better than the nhs scan I had had with dd2), and I was so glad to have had it, but it was expensive at £180.

Good luck and congratulations on your pregnancy.

According to my doc, an ultrasound scan must be performed between 11 weeks and 13 weeks plus six days of pregnancy. So 15 weeks will be too late if you want the nuchal fold test-apparently most of the fluid they measure will have been absorbed.

I don't know your circumstances, but would it be possible for you to pay to have a private scan? I didn't have any faith in the scan I had on the NHS (I was only in there for 7 minutes IN TOTAL- and that included getting undressed!!!!) so I went to the fetal medicine centre on Harley street for another scan. They are actually a charity so whilst it was still more money than I'd ideally want to spend (none!), it wasn't a foolish amount. Interestingly the results from the NHS scan and the private scan were very different..... Lots of hospitals offer the facility for private scans as well.

If you want to have a nuchal scan then 15 weeks is too late. Not all areas offer a 12 week scan - with DS I didn't have one; just the 20 week anomoly scan. It is bad that your records have been lost but sadly these things do happen.

With my last baby, I wasnt booked for a scan until I was 16+4 weeks, at the scan itself I was found to be 17+3, they blamed it on a baby boom, and they were very busy. Hope this isnt the case for you and you get one much sooner.

Yes!! Exactly the same happenend to me, I ended up calling the docs twice to advise them I still hadnt heard from hosp,receptionists there were really unhelpful and just said its showing its been sent, the second time I demanded to speak with my doc, she called me back and had referred me to a totally diff hospital in the opp direction of where i live! She then sent a referal through to the correct hosp that afternoon and the hosp called me back that day with an app for three days time, I then had my app and found out I was only 9 weeks! Scan was still fine and the midwife had a good check and we have a pic of our blob, they are so busy my next scan will be when ii'm nearly 14 weeks

I hope you get it sorted soon, call back and ask to speak with your doctor asap and check they havent sent you to another hosp not your chosen

Thats really helpful everyone. Yes, My hospital do offer the nuchal scan and I would definitely choose to have this. I am waiting to speak to my doctor after lunch, I'm pretty sure she will do all she can to sort this for me. At the end of the day knowing my baby is ok is the most important thing so sod the expense, I would get a private scan. How do I go about this and any recommendations about where to go? We are in London.

Stoopstofolly - how did you find the place you went in Harley Street and how quickly could they see you?

Thanks for all you support everyone and sharing your experiences. Of course the NHS is underfunded/understaffed etc etc but I do find this kind of stuff unacceptable and irresponsible. It's my right to have this scan before 14 weeks, right?

I don't know about right, but certainly you have to do a nuchal fold before 13w6d otherwise you can't do it.

It's the fetal medicine centre in harley Street
www.fetalmedicine.com/fmc/

I can't recomend it highly enough. My brother and his wife recomended it. I managed to get an appointment the day after my unsatisfactory NHS scan, but they had a cancellation. It was £150, which I though was great value- they do the blood tests as well, and you get all the results on the day, with the doctor talking you through what they mean and the options. The £150 includes the scan , nuchal fold measurement, blood tests, nasal bone and tricuspid blood flow evaluation. You also get lots of photos.

Hope it all goes well.

This is so annoying for you - happened to me as well, in fact until the last 2w of my curent pregnancy I had to chase up all of my midwife appointments and my first two hospital apointments too.

Nuchal definitely needs to be done now if your 11+1 is accurate. I'd be tempted to lay the law down with them and complain and send them the bill if you can't be fitted in. They're not available on the NHS in my area and I had to pay £190 for it but I don't see why you should miss out because of their error.

The clinic I went to (nr oxford), were really helpful in setting up an appointment within the correct dates, even though I called at short notice. Have a google, there are lots of private places that do them in London, I went for one called an OSCAR , which is basically a combined scan with blood tests (the clinic sent a kit for me to have done at the local surgery). It took a couple of hours (compared to the 10 minutes that the nhs nuchal scan took), and she went through other concerns that I had, due to previous pregnancies.

Good luck.

We're in Scotland, and our area don't do the nuchal fold scanning, so my 12 week scan wasn't until 15 weeks. It wasn't too much of a problem for us this time round as we had an early scan at the EPU after a mc and were feeling a bit more reassured anyway.

Having said that, I would second the private scan recommendation; we had dd anomaly scanned the 20wk one) privately, as at the time even that scan wasn't performed up here . It was a lovely, relaxed appointment and they took a lot of care and trouble to point everything out and go through things, whereas nearly all our NHS scans have been performed briskly by fairly grumpy staff who give out a few grudging snippets .

I've spent most of today trying to get some answers to this. The GP surgery confirm that my referral letter to the hospital was picked up by hand by the hospital on 5th Feb!!!! They have faxed it again today and say thats all they can do.

The hospital are getting pretty peed off with me now and insist they have no record of me and that I will have to wait (possibly until mid next week - when I'll be 12 weeks) for the "appointment co-ordinator" to make a decision on what to do. I've tried getting shirty, they just get shirty back. I mean why should they care. The whole thing is a complete farce. I am so .

I really resent paying for a scan when I am entitled to it. Guess I'll just have to swallow it, baby is the most important thing anyway.

So kind of you all to share advice and thoughts.

Knitting What an absolute mess and how upsetting! I second the poster who recommended the fetal medicine centre in London. My private consultant recommended that I have my nuchal performed there or at Ultrasound Diagnostic Services 148 Harley Street, www.uds.uk.com/.

In the end because my obstetrician's office was in the same building as UDS I went there for my nuchal and all subsequent scans. The staff are all lovely and incredibly thorough -- they always spend time explaining everything. Plus you will get some lovely photos.

They can usually give you an appointment within a few days (sometimes same day if there is a cancellation).

I might call and make an appointment at either clinic in case you can't get booked in at your hospital. If the hospital comes through, you can just cancel.

I hope this helps!

Ring the PALS service at your hospital and ask them to help.

I had my scan which was supposed to be a nuchal scan (offered as standard here) at 11+3, but in fact they redated me as 10+3 so it was too early. They then booked me in for another scan at 13+4 but had to cancel on the day, and tried to rebook me for a week later. I made a fuss as that would be too late for the nuchal scan, so they squeezed me in on the Saturday (13+6). Unfortunately the baby was already too big by then for the nuchal scan...

Hope you manage to get somewhere. They must have cancellations? Or even a standby clinic? I know a lot of people don't turn up for appointments so you would ahve thought if you were prepared to sit and wait for an afternoon there would be a good chance...

Hi there, what an awful thing to happen and must be very stressful for you.
Emster30 makes a very good point, how sure of you of your dates? are you dating from first day of your last period? Because of my age (35) I decided to book in for a private nuchal fold scan anyway, when I called my local clinic they could have fit me in the day after (most private clinics would fit you in very quickly I believe) I went at what was 12 weeks by my period dates but was actually dated at 10 weeks so I was actually too early and had to be re-scanned (no extra cost) a few weeks later. So if there is a possibility you may be a bit earlier than you think then you have a little bit of leeway for the Hospital to get its finger out!! Its clearly human error so they will have to do something about it.
BUT saying all that, I would spend the £180 we spent again in a second, just for the reassurance and care we got. Was a huge huge relief and really worth every penny.
Good luck!

knittingmum, my experience with my hospital is that when I make a real fuss they end up sorting things out!

So I'd recommend you said you won't wait for so long for the coordinator and continue to pressure them. You can always try a PALS office (I don't know exactly how it works, but was transferred to it last time I complained).

Making a formal complaint may help as well (at least you'll feel relieved after writing the letter

yep, i also had this problem, and they got me a scan at short notice...though i turned out to be 15weeks already anyway.

I don't believe they don't have time for another scan appointment in three weeks, as they must often do emergency scans, and have no-shows and cancellations.

the moral of the story is...don't just wait for them to contact you - they often lose paperwork!

I am sure they can find some space as they leave gaps for other emergency appointments.
Can you contact the midwives at the antenatal clinic at the hospital and explain, they may be able to pull a few strings.
I hope you manage to sort it out.

It may be worth asking your own hospital if they offer private scans - mine did and it was only around £60 (though didn't include blood tests etc). I'm also in London.

Many areas don't offer nuchal scans as standard and my SIL's pct only offer 20 week scans, so no dating scan at all. Having said that I understand it is frustrating to be messed around, after all you did the right thing in seeing your GP quickly.

It depends how stressed out you want to get arguing, if you can afford it it may be simpler to pay privately and move on.

I really feel for you knittingmum, however there are other options. Even if they don't manage to find a slot before the 14week cut off for the nuchal fold screening you can get tested for downs syndrome by the triple blood test at 16 weeks. In fact a lot of NHS areas don't even offer nuchal fold screening (mine didn't) only the triple test. The main other reasons for 12 week scan are to check for twins, confirm the possible due date, and sadly check if there has been a missed miscarriage. These three things can be done at any scan age.

I hope this sets your mind at rest a bit. It's still shocking that the hospital it so disorganised and worse that they are not trying to right the wrong, but there are options still open to you.

Congratulations on the pregnancy

Just to second GG I went for my 12 week scan but it turned out I was actually nearly 16 weeks - oops! They checked for Downs by doing a blood test as too late for nuchal fold test. It did mean that I had to wait an extra week for test results which was a worry but wanted to reassure you there are other reliable tests NHS can do for anomalies so don't feel you have to pay to go private unless you can afford to.

how annoying, but a few weeks delay won't harm you or baby! Congratulations XXX

The only problem would be the nuchal fold measurement which cannot be done after 13 weeks and 6 days.

You do realise that a nuchal fold measurement won't give you a definite answer to whether your baby is 'OK' or not. It will only give you the statistical risk of whether you need to go for further testing (or not is you chose).

TBH with my last pg I didn't bother with the NF measurement as I knew I would 100% not have an amnio or terminate so to me it would be pointless.

They can also give you a blood test to check for anomolies in your blood - this is what they used to use before th NF test. It can be done up to 15/16 weeks I think.