'More control' needed after missed brain condition

A mother is campaigning for tighter controls in the medical profession after her baby's life-changing brain abnormalities went undetected.

Charlotte Tolley, 36, from Camberley in Surrey is petitioning Parliament to legally regulate those practising sonography - a diagnostic technique which uses ultrasound to monitor foetal development.

Currently, anyone in England can purchase the necessary equipment and call themselves a sonographer without any formal qualifications or a requirement to join an official register.

"I don't want other parents to experience what I've been through," said Tolley, who is also warning pregnant women not to rely solely on private maternity clinic scans.

Tolley had 20-week and 30-week scans carried out at a private clinic before her son Lucas was born in March 2020, saying she believed they would offer the same level of accuracy as NHS neonatal scans.

But, when she became concerned he was struggling to feed, she arranged for a postnatal ultrasound to be done on the NHS, prompting the discovery that he had a large cleft in his cerebral cortex.

Now five, Lucas also has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and is visual impaired, leaving him requiring constant supervision and an intensive medication regime.

"The doctor was visibly shocked when he looked at the scan," said Tolley.

"Even to the untrained eye it was very obvious that something was seriously wrong.

"My first reaction was to ask how long he has to live, and why had no-one noticed this beforehand."

Amy Heath, medical negligence partner at law firm Stewarts, said: "Tragically, this is not an isolated incident.

"Families across the country have been let down by a system that allows under-qualified individuals to perform ultrasound scans.

"The risks to patient safety are sufficiently high to justify regulation, because people deserve to be confident that every ultrasound scan – whether private or NHS – meets the same standard of care."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was committed to ensuring there was appropriate regulation for all health and social care professionals.

"That regulation is kept under review to ensure patient safety remains paramount -we will carefully consider any proposals from professional bodies regarding this," they said.

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