Case examples supporting regulation

Have you had a negative medical ultrasound experience?

What is this?

We are asking you to tell us about a negative experience during a medical ultrasound examination. This will help us improve how people are protected when they have an ultrasound examination.

You can do this confidentially or provide your contact details so that we can update you on this work.

Why is this needed? 

Ultrasound examinations are performed mainly by sonographers who are not nationally regulated in Australia. This means that when you get an ultrasound, the patient protections in place are less than when you have other medical imaging scans. And if something goes wrong, the complaints handling and outcomes are limited and vary depending on where you live.

We need your account of negative medical ultrasound experiences to support our case to the government to improve the protection of Australians by regulating sonographers.

What is a negative experience?

We are asking you to tell us about ultrasound examination experiences that have caused you distress or harm during the examination or after. This may include injury, a missed or misdiagnosis, other avoidable incidents or poor conduct.

Where you have more than one experience, please submit seperate forms. 

What will happen with this information?

Your experience, together with other people’s accounts, will provide evidence to governments that sonographers need to be regulated. All accounts will be individually de-identified to ensure your privacy and confidentiality.

We guarantee that any personal information provided will only be used for this purpose and kept strictly confidential.

If you have any questions or would prefer to provide a case example by email or phone, don't hesitate to get in touch with Jodie Coulter (Policy Officer at the Australasian Sonographers Association) at Jodie.Coulter@sonographers.org

Thank you for supporting this important work.