Private Ultrasound for Chingford — Weekend Scans Worth the Valley Crossing

What crossing the valley actually buys you

Nobody here is going to claim this is your nearest scanner — from Chingford it is a drive over the Lea Valley and back again, so the money belongs at the top of the page rather than the bottom. Every ultrasound scan on this page costs £180, whatever it is looking at, and each one is listed with the length of appointment booked for it. That figure is the whole of it: no booking charge, no separate consultation fee, and no card details taken on this site.

The one thing to watch is musculoskeletal work, which is priced per area: a second area is another £180, and you hear that before it is scanned rather than afterwards on an invoice. If two things need looking at, say so when the team ring back, so that one crossing does the work of two. A clinician reports the images afterwards, so nobody hands you a set of pictures and leaves you to work them out. Here is what can be scanned:

That list is the whole of what is scanned here. If yours is not on it, ask and we will name the test and where it is actually done rather than sell you the nearest thing. The clinic does not offer CT, MRI, or pregnancy scans of any kind. Where an examination would settle the question better than an image, a private GP appointment comes first, and the price list carries every published fee. Sending a patient over from E4? Refer a patient sets out what we need.

Two ways over the Lea Valley, and a railway that is no help

The valley is the whole story of this journey. Between E4 and N13 there are two reservoirs, a river, a navigation and a strip of marsh, and only a few places to get across. From Chingford there are two sensible ones. The A110 Lea Valley Road runs west out of Chingford between the King George V and William Girling reservoirs, over the Lea and into Enfield at Ponders End, and you then come south through Winchmore Hill. The alternative is to drop south first on the A112 to the Crooked Billet roundabout, take the A406 North Circular west over the Lea at Edmonton, and leave it at the Green Lanes junction in Palmers Green, which is a short run from the clinic.

Which of the two is better depends entirely on the hour. The reservoir road is a single carriageway with nowhere to overtake and no way around it if something ahead has stopped. The North Circular is quick while it is moving and immovable when it is not. Neither has a dependable answer at half past eight on a weekday morning, and we are not going to put a figure in minutes on either of them from a web page.

The railway is the part that catches people out. Chingford station is the end of its branch, and the Overground from there runs south-west through Highams Park and Walthamstow towards Liverpool Street — away from the clinic rather than towards it. No train crosses the valley at this point. It can be done by bus: the 313 runs west from Chingford station through Ponders End to Enfield Town, and the 329 then comes down Green Lanes through Winchmore Hill to Palmers Green. That is two buses and a change, which is the other reason most patients drive.

Ask the team about parking when they ring you back, and set the satnav on the postcode in the panel at the top of this page rather than on the map further down — the map marks the district these scans are booked from, not the building itself.

Why the weekend diary is the one to use from E4

The clinic is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, and from 8am to 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday. For a patient walking in from a few streets away those weekend hours are a convenience. From Chingford they are closer to the point of the whole exercise, because an early Saturday appointment means taking the reservoir road when it is empty instead of sitting on it behind everything heading for Enfield.

Appointments are booked at around 20 to 25 minutes, and each scan's exact length is published beside its price above. That is the slot itself — arriving, the scan, and the questions you want to put to the sonographer before you go — so having travelled, you are not being hurried through the tail end of somebody's list. Same or next-day appointments are often available, though the only honest answer for a particular scan comes from the team with the diary open in front of them.

Your scan is written up into a report, which is normally e-mailed to you as a PDF within one working day of your appointment. You receive a copy and, with your consent, we can send it to your GP or consultant — for a weekend appointment that copy can take up to 48 hours. That is worth knowing if you have chosen Saturday precisely because it suits the drive.

Give the team your GP's or your consultant's details when they call you back, so that consent for the copy is recorded before you travel rather than chased once you are home again.

Planning the day around the journey

An ultrasound scan builds a live picture of the soft tissue under the skin from high-frequency sound waves. There is no ionising radiation and so no dose to keep track of, nothing is injected for a standard scan, and there is no sedation and nothing to recover from — which means you can drive yourself back over to E4 as soon as you are finished, eat, and get on with the day.

Please note that the clinic does not carry out pregnancy scans of any kind. If you are pregnant, or think you might be, tell us when you book, because it can affect whether a test is suitable for you.

Preparation is the part that travels badly, and most scans need none at all. Where it is needed, it is simple enough to plan around:

• Some abdominal scans ask you not to eat for a few hours beforehand, so the crossing wants planning around that rather than around breakfast.
• Some pelvic scans ask you to arrive with a comfortably full bladder, which is a lot to ask of anybody who has just queued on the North Circular — give yourself room to arrive early.
• Whatever applies to your scan is explained on the telephone when the appointment is confirmed, so there is nothing to work out from a leaflet.
• Bring any referral letter or earlier imaging you have, along with the details of anybody you would like the report copied to.

Certain pelvic scans give a much clearer view from a slim internal probe; where that applies it is described to you first and only goes ahead with your agreement. If you would like a chaperone for an internal scan, ask when the team ring you back and they will confirm whether one is available for the time you want; you are welcome to bring someone in with you as well. Booking for a child? Tell us their age when you ring. A patient under 16 must be brought by a parent or someone with parental responsibility, who consents to the test with them, and some examinations are not suitable for children — the team will say plainly if yours is not one we can do. There is more about younger patients on the paediatric care page.

Where the clinic actually is

Scans are carried out at the London Diagnostic Centre, which is at the rear of Grovelands Medical Centre, 1 Grovelands Rd, London N13 4RJ. Grovelands Road runs between Aldermans Hill and Fox Lane, a short walk west of Green Lanes and the Palmers Green Triangle. The clinic sits behind the medical centre rather than on the street front, which is worth knowing before you pull up looking for a sign, and Palmers Green station is on Aldermans Hill, a few minutes' walk away.

Patients reach the clinic from across E4 and from the roads on either side of the valley:

• Chingford, Chingford Mount and Highams Park in E4
• Woodford Green and Walthamstow
• Edmonton and Enfield, on the way across, and Waltham Abbey further north

It is worth reading what to expect on the day and how your results reach you before you travel, and if a policy is covering the fee, start with paying with insurance. If you use a wheelchair, have trouble with steps, or need an interpreter or someone with you, say so when the team ring back and they will tell you exactly what the building can and cannot do and arrange what is needed.