All maternity units in the West Midlands offer pregnant women a scan at approximately 20 weeks gestation to examine the fetus for structural congenital anomalies. The precise purpose of this screening scan has recently been the subject of an RCOG Working Party, which I was pleased to be a member of. The conclusions of this group, and independent research undertaken in the West Midlands region has suggested that when a routine fetal anomaly scan is undertaken the following structures should be seen.

We accept that using these methods there will be cases in which congenital anomalies are not identified. The detection rate will depend upon the degree of abnormality, the training of the person performing the scan, the quality of the machine used and the structures within the hospital to encourage high quality of ultrasound, such as the time allocated, the intensity of work and staff support.

Below is a pictorial checklist that provides a summary standard for this type of examination.