Years before anomaly scans for all pregnancies

It will take at least another two years before ultrasound scans to pick up on foetal anomalies are available to all pregnant women in Ireland — and that’s only if funding is provided to hire one extra sonographer every fortnight.

In the meantime, the largest maternity unit in the West, which had extended the service to all women, says it may have to revert to partial access for select cases because of a staff shortage.

October 2019 has been set as the target date for the provision of full access to foetal anomaly scans but the HSE says that will depend on funding being made available to recruit and train 52 new sonographers.