PREGNANT women face a “postcode lottery” for screening of heart problems in their unborn babies, experts have warned.

Dr Kate Bull, a former paediatric cardiac surgeon, said the most effective way to diagnose congenital heart problems was before birth, during the 20-week scan.

However, she said there was variation, across the UK, in the proficiency of the scanners used to detect heart conditions in unborn babies.

She said babies were continuing to be sent home from hospital with undiagnosed conditions, which can lead to worse outcomes for surgery.

The surgeon has recently retired from Great Ormond Street hospital in London and has written a book, Open Hearts, about her experiences.

Every year in the UK, around 5,000 babies are born with Congenital Heart Disease, however, only around a third are detected before birth. Most patients now reach adulthood but face lifelong monitoring. 

Dr Bull said: “The whole business of making a diagnosis when a child is born is more difficult than you think. Babies are not in hospital for very long and some children are sent home before a diagnosis can be made.

“Heart murmurs are not always helpful because lots and lots of babies are born with them.

“The other test that can be done is to measure how much oxygen in the blood. However, there is also, once again, false positives. The best way to

“There’s a postcode lottery around the UK in terms of that, in terms of the the proficiency of the scanners and being able to recognise a problem with the plumbing of the heart.

“It’s really bad to go home with a serious cardiac lesion that has been undiagnosed because babies turn up in hospital so sick that when they have the operation they were always going to need, their chance of getting through the operation is lower.

“There are definitely issues around it.”

The former surgeon said introducing mandatory screening for conditions such as cardiomyopathy – which can lead to the sudden death of young people – was problematic because “medicine can’t sort everything.”