Dr. Mary Favier:

One can assume, for purposes of early dating of pregnancy, that there are no GPs who have ultrasound machines. Some GPs are taking on the role of ultrasound scanning but it is not in this area of early pregnancy but relates to whether one has gallstones, for example. Ultrasound machines are incredibly expensive. The cheapest second-hand one that can be bought is €15,000 and the sky is the limit on the high-tech ones that hospital services use. We do not see any scenario where GPs will be purchasing ultrasound machines out of their very constrained budgets. I work in an area of high urban deprivation. Under no circumstances, with all the cutbacks we have sustained, will we buy an ultrasound machine.