In order to protect your children from harm and in line with other hospitals we are asking you to not bring a child under 16 to attend your scan with you.

There are no child care facilities and children should not be left unaccompanied under any circumstances. If you do attend with children, I am sorry to say that your scan will be postponed. There are several reasons for this change:-

Children get very bored in the scan rooms and this can lead to them being disruptive. The Sonographer that does your scan needs a high level of concentration. All the scans we do have a clinical purpose – we are checking your baby for any anomalies/abnormalities at both your 1st trimester and 2nd trimester scans.

If your Sonographer becomes distracted, something could be missed on your scan and could have consequences for your baby. Growth scans also need high levels of concentration as clinical decisions are made on the strength of these scans – you and your baby may be subjected to unnecessary interventions if your scan is not accurate.

The scan room is a working clinical area and is not designed to accommodate children. It allows the effective practice of performing scans. When you are distracted with your scan, children have the opportunity to wander. The scan rooms contain very hot water taps which have the potential to scald your child. We have high voltage sensitive electronic equipment within the scan room putting a child at high risk of electrocution if they play with the wires and sockets.

On occasions there may be bad news at a scan and that news has to be broken to the parents in front of the children, who then have to watch their parents in distress.

Sometimes an external scan is not good enough to see your baby and we may need to do an intimate transvaginal (internal) scan which is not always appropriate for your child to see.

The only exception to this is where you have absolutely no alternative provision for your child. This must be agreed in advance with the team.

Confidentiality

‘The Trust’s vision is to keep your information safe in our hands.’ We promise to use your information fairly and legally, and in-line with local and national policies. You have a right to understand how your information is used and you can request a copy of the information we hold about you at any time.

For further information on confidentiality contact the Information Governance Team:

Information.Governance@ncic.nhs.uk | 01228 603961

Feedback

We appreciate and encourage feedback, which helps us to improve our services. If you have any comments, compliments or concerns to make about your care, please contact the Patient, Advice & Liaison Service:

pals@ncic.nhs.uk | 01228 814008 or 01946 523818

If you would like to raise a complaint regarding your care, please contact the Complaints Department:

complaints@ncic.nhs.uk | 01228 936302