It’s routine in UK
IT Is best medical practice for pregnant women to have an ultrasound scan that spots foetal anomalies at around 20 weeks.
In the UK, this scan is routinely offered to all pregnant women. However, in Ireland, as highlighted by the Irish Mail on sunday and by medics, this scan is often only offered to women seen as having high-risk pregnancies. But many conditions, such as a baby having a heart problem, cannot be easily seen without this scan. An earlier scan, at eight weeks, is known as a dating scan and cannot offer the same level of detail.
The HSE recently told the Oireachtas Health Committee that just six of the 19 maternity hospitals offer anomaly scans to all women.
Yet medics from Cork University Maternity Hospital said they can only offer it to less than half of their patients.