Window to the Womb Ealing
PRIVATE COMPANY LOOKING FOR BUSINESS AND PROFIT.
If you Google – ‘Antenatal Scans at Ealing Hospital’ two sites top the search. Ealing Hospital which offers antenatal care. and the private company Window to the Womb Ealing, which claims to be ‘Specialists in Well-being, Gender & 4D Baby Scans’
It is hardly surprising that with the closure of the Maternity Unit at Ealing Hospital the private company, Window to Womb, has moved into Ealing and is leafleting the area offering ante natal scans. They offer a dazzling number of scans for women throughout their pregnancy – costs for a scan start at £55.
One of the scans on offer is for gender. Their website trumpets that
We offer our 99.9% accurate Well-Being & Gender Scan from 16-22 weeks for just £59, you can visit us a full 4 weeks before the NHS scans for gender.
Screening specifically for gender is controversial and many NHS hospitals do not offer it unless it is for genetic abnormalities that only one sex inherits.
Window To The Womb Ealing website does not tell expectant women who are enticed to use their services what happens if a scan reveals possible problems or abnormalities. On inquiring about this possibility expectant mothers are told they will be quickly referred to ‘a doctor’. For most without private health insurance or very large bank accounts that will be an NHS doctor. Once again private companies take the profit and the NHS is left to deal with the problem.
Window to the Womb registered with the Care Quality Commission on the 10th March 2015 however as of the 22nd March 2018 the Care Quality Commission report that “We have not inspected this service yet.”
