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ABC News
6 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler investigating 'souvenir' ultrasound clinics targeting pregnant women
With a sonographer shortage nationwide a growing number of women are going to have "souvenir scans" on their pregnancies at private enterprises. The scans are designed to offer peace of mind to nervous mothers. They can reveal a baby's gender or provide a memento of the unborn baby in 3D, and sometimes 4D. But many of these scans come with an added cost as unqualified examiners are verbally warning them that there could be a "problem" with their unborn child. Those warnings rarely come with a medical report, but can instil fear in young parents. It is information that has led Federal Health Minister Mark Butler to have his department investigate reassurance clinics and their practices. "I've asked the department to look at this closely," Mr Butler told 7.30. "It's something that's been brought to my attention through this media reporting. "I wasn't aware before that of the opening of these clinics, they're not registering on the the the health system particularly because they're not claiming Medicare benefits, they're not claiming private health insurance payments, they're private non-medical operations. Sonographers are not currently regulated under the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. This means there's no national competency standard, no recency of practice requirement, no national complaints process or even criminal background checks on sonographers. The practices at the clinics are also causing issues for doctors like Nisha Khot, the president of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians. Dr Khot says a growing number of her pregnant patients are unknowingly booking in reassurance scans, rather than a medical ultrasound as pat of a recent boom. "There are more and more providers, who actually do these reassurance scans, they may not even do any medical scans at all," Dr Khot told 7.30 "What I have seen is that women will go along to have a reassurance [scan], they will not get a report, but they'll probably be told verbally by the person doing the ultrasound that there is a problem and that problem could be something minor. It could be something major," Dr Khot said. "But there's no report that goes with this ultrasound scan … so I don't know what has been seen. "I don't have the ability to act on what she's telling me." When mother of three Viv Mertikas was pregnant last year, she booked a 20-week medical ultrasound scan with a private ultrasound provider she'd never used before. "The whole process was very rushed, we were in there 5 minutes," she told 7.30. Dr Khot says a time duration that short for a 20-week scan is "suspicious". Not only did Ms Mertikas receive blurry ultrasound images of her son Phoenix, but her doctor was also never sent the medical report she paid for. "I contacted them, and there's no answer. I've left a voicemail and then I keep calling, and I keep calling, and then at my next appointment, I have with an obstetrician, and they've said as well that they have not received the report." She had to get her 20-week scan all over again, which cost her more than $300. Andrew Hewat was a sonographer for more than 30 years in the Geelong region, he says "anyone can pick up an ultrasound" and start operating. The industry wants sonographers regulated under the same umbrella as radiographers. "We think the public deserve to have the safeguards in place and to feel that they have trust in the profession, that they're working to those high standards that you'd expect of AHRPA registered professions," President of the Australasian Sonographers Association, Tony Coles told 7.30. "There's a Medical Radiation Practitioners Board of Australia, and we'd like to see sonographers registered through that board. "That would bring it into line with other medical imaging professions such as radiographers and nuclear medicine technicians who are already registered with AHPRA." Mr Butler said a decision on whether sonographers will be regulated will be made later this year. "We currently have a review underway to see where a range of allied health professions should be brought under the national regulatory scheme for health professionals," he said. "That's due to report to all health ministers over the next couple of months and sonography will be part of that report."
ABC News
12-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
New Australian guidelines for miscarriage and early pregnancy loss released
Australia's first comprehensive national guidelines for the treatment of early pregnancy loss have been welcomed by women's health experts. The clinical guidelines, developed by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RANZCOG), are designed to provide a benchmark for best practice medical care. "We don't actually have a standard of care for miscarriage in Australia because every health service does something slightly different and every clinician probably does something slightly different," Nisha Khot, obstetrician and president-elect of RANZCOG, said. Early pregnancy loss is common in Australia; it's estimated up to one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, and more than 100,000 couples are affected by miscarriage every year. The clinical guidelines, published in late April, provide recommendations for the treatment of miscarriage, recurrent miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy up to 14 weeks gestation. Ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilised egg implants and grows outside the uterus. Dr Khot said in addition to providing health professionals with up-to-date evidence on the medical and surgical management of pregnancy loss, the guidelines were about ensuring empathy was "central to all the care we provide". Among the recommendations is a new definition of recurrent miscarriage, which was previously defined as a woman having three consecutive miscarriages. "[The new guidelines] have very specifically said that it is two miscarriages and they don't need to be consecutive for women to be able to access further testing to find out the cause," Dr Khot said. Isy Oderberg, co-founder of the Early Pregnancy Loss Coalition, said the guidelines would go a long way to supporting women and families who experience early pregnancy loss. "The time to just tell patients to go home and try again is over," Ms Oderberg said. "We need to offer patients proper care, proper oversight, let them know they're not alone, and not compound any grief they are already feeling with substandard care or a lack of empathy." Ms Oderberg, who had seven miscarriages on her way to having two living children, said miscarriage care varied significantly across the country and often came down to luck. "There are times when you go and seek care and you have an incredible, empathetic, knowledgeable clinician who can give you the right guidance and treat you well, both from a medical point of view but also in terms of empathy," she said. "But there are many, many horror stories. "It varies wildly and it gets worse when the person is from a marginalised or minority group, or if they're in a regional or rural area." Culturally, there has long been a discomfort around early pregnancy loss, she said, which has contributed to poor understanding of patients' needs and how to best support them. "We've seen a lot of doctors be dismissive … because it's just seen as a natural part of the reproductive cycle, which to some extent it is, but that doesn't lessen the grief." A global review of evidence in 2021 found the impact and consequences of miscarriage were "underestimated". It called for a comprehensive overhaul of the medical care and advice offered to women who have miscarriages. The new Australian guidelines recommend that communication with patients is "clear, empathetic and respectful" and that health professionals take care with terminology and use of certain phrases when discussing early pregnancy loss. "If the patient refers to their loss as a baby, [doctors] have to take that lead and refer to it in the same way," Ms Oderberg said. "It compounds a patient's grief if they don't take that lead, and use words like 'spontaneous abortion', which is still commonly used by a lot of doctors." In 2024, the federal government committed $9.5 million to miscarriage support and research, including funding a scoping study for a national miscarriage data collection. Ms Oderberg said it was important to understand where early pregnancy loss occurred, who was most affected, and whether rates were increasing. "The reason we need miscarriage data is because you can't create any sort of health policy without knowing who you're creating it for, where they are, how many people need the service … it's a fundamental plank of any decent policy." The Early Pregnancy Loss Coalition is now hoping to develop a national miscarriage road map, similar to the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan, in order to look long-term at patient pathways, quality of care, and research funding. "A lot of what happens in this space of early pregnancy loss is not well understood because it is not well researched," Dr Khot said. "That is because there hasn't been funding for research in this area." In addition to further research, she said more psychological support was needed for women and families experiencing early pregnancy loss. "Whether that be counselling or mental health support, these are things women should have access to without additional costs." Listen to the full story on Radio National and subscribe to the Health Report podcast for more.
