Private Ultrasound for Edmonton — £180 a Scan, Open Seven Days

Why people from Edmonton book here

Edmonton is N9 and N18, gathered around Edmonton Green and the Fore Street and Hertford Road corridor, and the clinic sits a couple of miles west of it in N13. That is a bus ride or a short drive rather than a stroll, so the money ought to be clear before you set off. Every ultrasound scan is £180 — the same figure for a shoulder as for an abdomen — and each one is listed below with the time to allow. Musculoskeletal scans are charged per area, so a second area is another £180, and you hear that before it is carried out rather than afterwards. Nothing is taken online and no consultation charge is added on top.

The other draw for N9 and N18 is the diary. Weekdays run from 9am to 5pm, and both weekend days from 8am to 8pm. Your scan is carried out by a qualified sonographer and reported by a registered clinician, so you leave with a written result rather than an impression. These are the ultrasound scans the clinic is able to carry out:

If the list does not obviously hold your answer, ask the team before booking — and where the test you need is not one we do, you will be told so and pointed at where it is done, not booked in regardless. There are no CT or MRI scanners here, and the clinic carries out no pregnancy scans of any kind. If you would rather be examined first and let a doctor choose the test, a private GP appointment is the sounder starting point, because nothing is settled down a telephone line. Every fee is on the price list, and a clinician sending somebody in should begin at refer a patient.

What an ultrasound scan is actually like

An ultrasound scan builds a live picture from high-frequency sound waves. There is no ionising radiation in it, so no dose is recorded and nothing accumulates if the scan has to be repeated later. The trade-off is that sound will not travel through bone or gas, which is why certain questions are answered better by an X-ray or another test entirely — and you will be told when that is the case instead of being scanned anyway.

One thing to be plain about: the clinic carries out no pregnancy scans of any kind. Tell the team if you are pregnant or think you might be, because it can change whether a particular test suits you.

The appointment itself goes like this:

1. You lie on the couch and uncover only the area being examined.
2. Warm water-based gel is spread on the skin, so no air sits between the probe and you.
3. The sonographer moves a small hand-held probe over the area, pressing at times to see round bone or bowel.
4. The pictures appear on a screen you can watch, and the ones that matter are saved for your report.

A few scans want preparation — some hours without food, or arriving with a comfortably full bladder — and the exact instruction is given when the team ring to confirm, rather than left for you to guess at. Nothing is injected, there is no sedation and no recovery period, so you can walk back to the bus stop straight afterwards. Certain pelvic scans see a great deal more from a slim internal probe; where yours is one of them it is explained beforehand and goes ahead only once you have agreed. 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. Bringing a child? Give their age when you ring — anyone under 16 needs a parent or someone with parental responsibility there to consent with them, and a handful of examinations are not suitable for children, which the team will say outright. Paediatric care covers the rest.

How long the appointment takes

Ultrasound appointments are booked at roughly 20 to 25 minutes, and each scan carries its own length beside its price in the list above. That covers arriving, the scan itself, and whatever you want to put to the sonographer before you go. It is a proper slot, not a gap wedged between two other people.

Afterwards the scan is written up. Your report 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. Your results explains how it reaches you and what to do with it.

Coming across from N9 or N18 and want more than one area looked at on the same visit? Say so when the team ring back, so the diary is built around it rather than asking you to make the journey twice.

What paying privately actually buys

Being seen sooner is the obvious draw, and it is not the whole of it. It is worth setting out plainly what the fee covers, because that is easier to weigh up than a promise.

• Self-referral is accepted, so there is no letter to chase and no appointment needed to obtain one.
• One published price per scan, with musculoskeletal work charged per area and quoted before it is carried out.
• Your scan is carried out by a qualified sonographer and reported by a registered clinician.
• Appointments through the week, and from 8am to 8pm on Saturday and Sunday.
• A written report that is yours to keep and to hand to any doctor treating you.

Same or next-day appointments are often available, though we will not name a date on a web page before anyone has looked at the diary. And a scan does not always finish the job on its own — where the pictures point towards a different test, you will be told that rather than sold a second appointment. Insurance is a separate question, and paying with insurance sets out what to check with your insurer first.

Getting here from Edmonton

Your appointment happens at the rear of Grovelands Medical Centre, 1 Grovelands Rd, London N13 4RJ. The clinic entrance is behind the medical centre rather than on the street front, which is worth knowing before you arrive. Grovelands Road runs between Aldermans Hill and Fox Lane, a short walk west of Green Lanes and the Palmers Green Triangle.

The genuinely useful thing about Edmonton is the bus. The W6 runs from Edmonton Green to Palmers Green and on to Southgate, which puts the clinic's own district on a single route out of the middle of N9 — no changes and no connections to work out. Get off in Palmers Green and Grovelands Road is a few minutes on foot. Palmers Green station stands on Aldermans Hill, roughly 350 metres from us, about a five-minute walk; that is chiefly of use to people travelling from further off, because the trains from Edmonton Green and Silver Street run south into Liverpool Street, and Meridian Water's run across to Stratford — none of them comes west towards N13.

Driving is a short drive whichever way you come at it. Hedge Lane cuts west off the A10 Great Cambridge Road and brings you out on Green Lanes at Palmers Green; from the south of Edmonton the A406 North Circular goes round; and the A10 Great Cambridge Road runs up the western side towards Bush Hill Park and Enfield. Ask about parking and about the entrance when the team ring you back.

• Edmonton Green, N9 and N18, on the W6
• Ponders End and Bush Hill Park to the north, with Enfield beyond them
• Tottenham and Wood Green to the south, off the A406 and Green Lanes
• Winchmore Hill and Palmers Green, the two districts closest to the clinic door

The map on this page marks the district rather than the building itself; the address printed at the top is the one to travel to. Tell the team when they ring if you use a wheelchair, cannot manage steps, or need an interpreter or somebody with you, and they will say plainly what the building can and cannot do and arrange what is possible. What to expect walks through a visit from arrival to leaving, and the wider scans list shows everything else the clinic offers.