Choosing Well · Regulation

Unregulated Baby Scan Clinics — How to Check Yours Is Safe

Anyone in the UK can call themselves a sonographer. Here is what that regulatory gap actually means, and the four checks that separate a clinic you can verify from one you take on trust.

In November 2025 The Guardian reported on experts’ concerns about unregulated pregnancy scan clinics in the UK. The coverage was uncomfortable reading for the sector, and the underlying issue is real: “sonographer” is not a protected title in the UK. Unlike doctors, nurses and radiographers, there is no legal requirement for someone performing your pregnancy scan to hold any particular registration — which means the responsibility for checking falls on you.

The important distinction, and one worth being clear about before anything else: the risk is not the ultrasound. Diagnostic ultrasound is not known to cause harm at diagnostic settings, as our guide to ultrasound safety sets out. The risk lies in who holds the probe, whether they can interpret what they see, and — most of all — what happens next when something is wrong. A scan that misses an ectopic pregnancy, or sends someone home falsely reassured with no referral route, causes harm through the pathway, not the physics.

The Four Checks

How to verify a clinic before you book

  1. 1
    Is the clinic CQC-registered?In England, providers of diagnostic imaging should be registered with the Care Quality Commission and inspected against its standards. Registration is publicly searchable on the CQC website — ask for the provider ID and look it up. Ours is 1-2775844974.
  2. 2
    Is the person scanning you professionally registered?Ask for their name and registration number, then check it on the relevant public register — the HCPC register for radiographers and sonographers who hold it, or the GMC or NMC as applicable. A clinic that will not give you a name and number has answered your question.
  3. 3
    Will you receive a written report?A scan that produces images but no written, clinically phrased report is not a diagnostic examination. Ask what you receive, how quickly, and whether it is written so your GP or midwife can act on it.
  4. 4
    What happens if something is found?This is the question that matters most and gets asked least. A safe clinic can tell you exactly how an unexpected finding is escalated — who is told, how urgently, and how you are routed into NHS care. No referral pathway means no safety net.

Our fuller checklist is in the guide to choosing a private ultrasound clinic, and the related risks are covered in preventing ultrasound misdiagnosis.

The Regulatory Gap

Why professional bodies want this changed

The British Medical Ultrasound Society and the Society of Radiographers have long argued for statutory regulation of sonographers, and their reasoning is straightforward: where a title is unprotected, competence cannot be assumed, and patients have no reliable way to tell a highly trained practitioner from someone who has completed a short course. Professional guidance also holds that scanning should sit within a clinical pathway with a defined purpose — the prudent-use principle — rather than being sold as an experience.

That principle is why we take some positions that cost us bookings. We do not offer 3D or 4D keepsake scanning, because it answers no clinical question. We do not replicate the NHS 12-week combined screening or 20-week anomaly scan, because those belong to a screening programme with a fetal medicine pathway attached. And we say plainly when someone should be at an Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit or A&E rather than booking with us.

Our Position

What we can show you

Over a decade of trusted care. IUS London has spent more than ten years providing diagnostic ultrasound to thousands of patients across the city — regulated, clinically led, CQC-registered imaging delivered by professionals who also work within London NHS trusts. This article is written by a sonographer with over 20 years’ experience across the NHS and private sector.

Rather than assert that we are one of the good ones, here is what can be checked independently. We are a CQC-registered diagnostic ultrasound clinic, provider ID 1-2775844974. Scans are performed by HCPC-registered sonographers whose registration numbers we publish so you can verify them: Yianni Kiromitis, RA38415, and Tareq Ismail, RA42614 — both of whom also work within London NHS trusts, which is where the referral instincts come from. Every scan produces a written report, usually within two hours, phrased for your GP or midwife to act on.

The pattern we see, and the reason this matters: people arrive having been scanned somewhere that gave them images and a feeling, but no report, no measurements, and no answer to what happens next. Re-scanning them is straightforward. Undoing weeks of false reassurance, or a delayed referral, is not.

That is a generalised pattern from our practice, not an individual case. If you have concerns about a scan you had elsewhere, your GP or midwife is the right person to raise them with.

FAQs

Your questions answered

Are private baby scan clinics regulated in the UK?
Partially. Providers of diagnostic imaging in England should be registered with the CQC and are inspected against its standards — but the title “sonographer” itself is not legally protected, so there is no statutory requirement for the individual scanning you to hold a specific registration. That gap is why checking matters.
How do I check if a sonographer is qualified?
Ask for their full name and professional registration number, then look it up on the relevant public register — HCPC for registered radiographers and sonographers, or the GMC or NMC where applicable. A clinic unwilling to provide a name and number has told you what you need to know.
Is a private pregnancy scan safe?
The ultrasound itself is not the risk — diagnostic scanning has no known harmful effects at diagnostic settings. The risks are operator skill, false reassurance from a limited scan, and the absence of a referral pathway when something is found. Those are the things to check for.
Are keepsake and gender scans a problem?
The concern raised by professional bodies is scanning without a clinical purpose, performed by people without diagnostic training, and sold as reassurance. A scan that finds nothing wrong but was never designed to look properly can delay a real diagnosis, which is the harm.
What should a proper scan report contain?
What was examined and how, any limitations on the views obtained, the measurements taken, the findings in clinical language, and a clear statement of what should happen next. Images alone are not a report.
I think I was misinformed by another clinic — what should I do?
Speak to your GP or midwife, who can arrange appropriate NHS assessment and, where relevant, refer you to an Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit. If you have urgent symptoms — severe pain, heavy bleeding, feeling faint — go to A&E or call 999 rather than seeking another scan.
Related

Choosing well

ChecklistHow to Choose a Clinic

The full set of checks before you book anywhere.

Read the checklist →SafetyIs Ultrasound Safe?

The physics, the monitoring, and where the real risks sit.

Read the guide →The Real RiskPreventing Misdiagnosis

Why operator skill is the safety variable that matters most.

Read the guide →

Everything on this page, checkable

CQC-registered, HCPC numbers published, a written report usually within two hours, and a clear route into NHS care when a finding needs one.

From £119
Scan, interpretation and report

Pregnancy scans

5a Lucerne Mews
Kensington, London W8 4ED
3 mins from Notting Hill Gate

Media coverage referenced: The Guardian, 3 November 2025. Professional positions on regulation and prudent use are those of the British Medical Ultrasound Society and the Society of Radiographers. Our CQC registration can be verified at provider 1-2775844974. This article is general information, not individual medical advice.

Written and clinically reviewed by the HCPC-registered sonographers who perform this scan at IUS London — a CQC-registered diagnostic ultrasound clinic (Provider ID 1-2775844974). Your own findings are explained to you at the scan and set out in your report.

Author: Yianni Kiromitis, Senior Sonographer, HCPC RA38415
Medically reviewed: 1 August 2026