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Speaker 1: We've been contacted by a number of pregnant women in

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Speaker 1: recent weeks raising concerns about not being able to book

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Speaker 1: in for ultrasounds. Now here's an extract of an email

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Speaker 1: that I received from one mum. It says, as a

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Speaker 1: long standing resident of this region and a mother expecting

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Speaker 1: her third child, I'm appalled by the gross inadequacy of

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Speaker 1: qualified sonographers to conduct a routine twelve week ultrasound scan,

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Speaker 1: a standard procedure crucial for ensuring the well being of

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Speaker 1: both the unborn child and the expectant mother. It continues

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Speaker 1: by saying, it is simply unacceptable that a supposedly advanced

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Speaker 1: health care system cannot provide a fundamental service within a

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Speaker 1: reasonable time frame. After being referred for my ultrasound over

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Speaker 1: six weeks ago, I contacted I met at the Darwin

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Speaker 1: Hospital private hospital, only to be told that they're unable

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Speaker 1: to accommodate my appointment due to a lack of adequately

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Speaker 1: qualified staff. Their proposed solution a spot on a vague

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Speaker 1: waiting list with no guarantee of being seen within the

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Speaker 1: medically recommended window, So this mum says, my subsequent attempts

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Speaker 1: to secure an appointment at other radiology clinics in Darwin

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Speaker 1: were equally ineffective, as each one shamelessly redirected me back

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Speaker 1: to either I Meet or Catherine. Is this the extent

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Speaker 1: of the medical key that we expect in our city?

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Speaker 1: A perpetual cycle of incompetence? It continues by saying, it

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Speaker 1: does seem pretty unbelievable that mums are not able to

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Speaker 1: book for these scans. Some are even driving to Catherine

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Speaker 1: in order to well to have these standard procedures crucial

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Speaker 1: for ensuring the well being of both the unborn child

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Speaker 1: and the expectant mother. Now I, as I said, I've

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Speaker 1: been contacted by a number of mums about this and

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line right now is another Darwin

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Speaker 1: based expectant mum. Good morning to you, Maddie.

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Speaker 2: Hello, how are you really good?

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Speaker 1: Maddie? Thank you so much for your time. Now, you're

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Speaker 1: pregnant right now? Is your first baby, aren't you?

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Speaker 2: I am. I'm very excited and fit surreal hearing you

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Speaker 2: say that.

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Speaker 1: Actually, how far along are you?

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Speaker 2: We're sixteen weeks now.

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Speaker 1: Now have you been able to book in for your scans?

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Speaker 2: We got in for a dating scan. We had to

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Speaker 2: wait a little bit for that. And we actually just

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Speaker 2: drove to Catherine last week to get our twelve week scan.

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Speaker 1: So you actually had to make that drive to Catherine

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Speaker 1: to get in for the scan.

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Speaker 2: Yep.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So what were you told when you were trying

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Speaker 1: to book in locally?

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Speaker 2: Thankfully I have people that work in these clinics and

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Speaker 2: areas and had been telling me since I felt pregnant,

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Speaker 2: you need to book in now, and I just thought,

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Speaker 2: you know, territory time, Sure, it'll be one or two weeks.

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Speaker 2: And when the time came with my GP to refer

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Speaker 2: us for the twelve week scan, I went and went

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Speaker 2: to the referred place and they said, yeah, great, so

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Speaker 2: you'll be about six between seventeen, sixteen or eighteen weeks.

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Speaker 2: And I went back to my GP and said there

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Speaker 2: has to be another option. And my GP said to me,

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Speaker 2: there's two private practices in Darwin, and right now there's

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Speaker 2: too many pregnant people outweighing the services provided. Wow, it

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Speaker 2: was pretty overwhelming, and obviously, being a first time mum,

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Speaker 2: I said, put me on a wait list for sure,

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Speaker 2: I'll sit by the phone and wait for this phone call.

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Speaker 2: And to this day, I'm still waiting for that phone

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Speaker 2: call to happen. But thankfully a friend of mine is

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Speaker 2: in the same situation and she got referred to Katherine

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Speaker 2: and I said to her, I said, that's crazy, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: I'm doing that And I said, and she said, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm doing it. I've got a time frame I need

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Speaker 2: to meet it. Yeah, I'm doing it. And then I

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Speaker 2: stewed on it for two days and said to my partner,

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Speaker 2: are we being silly by doing this? And he goes,

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Speaker 2: let's just do it. We've got to do what we've

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Speaker 2: got to do. So I called up Catherine and they said, sure,

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Speaker 2: what time do you want to come in today? And

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Speaker 2: I said, padn today, like today, So I'm done and

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Speaker 2: I can't make it. So we booked it a week

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Speaker 2: a week later so we have time to get ready

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Speaker 2: to go down. And yeah, it was great.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Maddie. The thing is, though, these scans, like,

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Speaker 1: they're not just scans to you know, to check out

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Speaker 1: sort of you know, to kind of set your own

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Speaker 1: mind to ease, which actually is very important. I will

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Speaker 1: say the well being of my me and dad is

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Speaker 1: incredibly important. But these scans are also booked in to

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Speaker 1: check on the development of the baby growing inside. Of you,

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Speaker 1: and they are incredibly important to make sure that that

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Speaker 1: development is going in the way that.

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Speaker 2: It's be that's right, absolutely, and you know with the

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Speaker 2: new col you've only got that time, certain time frame

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Speaker 2: to ensure that you get that done, and unfortunately we

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Speaker 2: missed that period to get that done. But thankfully, you know,

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Speaker 2: there's another test involved now that the blood tests an

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Speaker 2: ipp which you can do. But you know we would

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Speaker 2: have if that wasn't available to us, we wouldn't have

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Speaker 2: been able to find out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh look, I've got mums messaging me right now saying,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is frightening, this is a frightening situation

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Speaker 1: and it is and it's you know, it is something

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Speaker 1: that you would think in a place like Darwin. We

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Speaker 1: are the capital city of the Northern Territory and of

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Speaker 1: the North you would think that, you know, you would

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Speaker 1: be able to get these procedures, well, these scans and

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Speaker 1: ultrasound done at the times that you actually need to.

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Speaker 2: And you know, it's hard for us to get referred

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Speaker 2: for the test, especially then if you find out that

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Speaker 2: the test isn't even offered any more at certain clinics

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Speaker 2: because the senographers who are trained in this aren't there,

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Speaker 2: you know, exactly like that mum, that email of you. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: the phenographers, we don't have them, and they have to

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Speaker 2: be trained and qualified to do certain parts of these ultrasounds,

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Speaker 2: and we just don't have them. So it's quite concerning that.

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Speaker 2: You're right, we're in a capital city and we don't

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Speaker 2: have enough.

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Speaker 1: Maddie, just to really kind of lay it down bluntly,

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Speaker 1: for some of our listeners, you know, for some of them,

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Speaker 1: it might have been quite some time since they had

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Speaker 1: to go through this process. For others, they may not

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Speaker 1: be parents, you know, even for me, it's it's ten

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Speaker 1: years since I had my last child, you know, in

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Speaker 1: terms of those different timeframes when you're meant to have

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Speaker 1: the scan. So one at twelve weeks, one at twenty weeks,

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Speaker 1: how long were you being told that you would have

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Speaker 1: to wait to get your twenty week scan.

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Speaker 2: I'm still not sure on that one. I am still

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Speaker 2: in the dark about that one. So I'm hoping when

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Speaker 2: I go to the hospital next week for my appointments

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Speaker 2: they can give me a bit more insight on that one.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, my GP said, Okay, so here's your referral,

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Speaker 2: but here's your next referral as well for the next scan. Yep,

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Speaker 2: and I've lost weeks now, I am.

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Speaker 1: Just And so even with your twelve weeks acan, had

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Speaker 1: you not gone to Catherine, would you still be waiting

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Speaker 1: for it? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, my appointments are still booked for next week and

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Speaker 2: the following week at this stage, and we're still you know,

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Speaker 2: thankfully I've canceled them to give them an opportunity for

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Speaker 2: Darwin women to have the chance to get seen. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: we would still be waiting.

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Speaker 1: Maddie. Can you tell me when you went to Catherine

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Speaker 1: to have your ultrasound then, were you told of other

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Speaker 1: women doing the same.

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Speaker 2: I was. Actually I knew four other women coming down

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Speaker 2: from Darwin on the same day for the appointment. And

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Speaker 2: when I went in and spoke to them, they were

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Speaker 2: so lovely and they said, oh, another one from Darwin.

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Speaker 2: You're not the first one. I said, I know, We've

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Speaker 2: just had a yarn in the hallway. So yeah, there

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Speaker 2: were four of us on that day that came of Darwin.

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Speaker 1: Wow, Maddie, from what, like, you know, from the discussions

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Speaker 1: that you've had, you know, like in terms of trying

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Speaker 1: to book in and that kind of thing, what have

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Speaker 1: they Have they told you or given you any indication

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Speaker 1: as to why it is such a long period of

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Speaker 1: time over the actual dates when you're meant to have

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Speaker 1: those scans? Is it justice? Have they just literally said

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Speaker 1: to you it's because there's so many pregnant women.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the practice itself can't tell us too much, but

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Speaker 2: we know and through friends of friends, you know people

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Speaker 2: in the system. Yeah, there's too many pregnant people that

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Speaker 2: can't they the system can't keep up. And again it

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Speaker 2: goes back to your qualified snographers. They have a certain

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Speaker 2: accreditation that they have to complete to be able to

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Speaker 2: do certain stages of ultrasounds of pregnancies. And I wasn't

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Speaker 2: aware of this until I became pregnant and started asking

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Speaker 2: the question and said, well, why do that just have

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Speaker 2: to be a normal genographer? And then I've soon learned

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Speaker 2: that they have to do special accreditation to keep their

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Speaker 2: qualifications to do different stages throughout the pregnancy. Well, now

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Speaker 2: when we lack it, and you know, we've got two

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Speaker 2: private practices and only one of these offer the new

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Speaker 2: cool test, well, I'll tell you what.

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Speaker 1: It sounds as though there needs to be some work

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Speaker 1: in this space. We do need to make sure that

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Speaker 1: you know that expectant moms are able to get these

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Speaker 1: ultrasounds when they are supposed to have those ultrasounds, because

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Speaker 1: the last thing that anybody wants is to then get

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Speaker 1: to any of those scans and find out that there's

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Speaker 1: an issue and you know, not be able to sort

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Speaker 1: it out.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Maddie, I really appreciate you speaking to us this

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Speaker 1: morning and making the Northern Territory aware of what's going on.

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Speaker 1: We're going to try and follow it up with the

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Speaker 1: Department of Health and see what we might be able

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Speaker 1: to find out, but also hopefully I'm hoping that we

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Speaker 1: can try and get this issue sorted in some way

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Speaker 1: or another.

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Speaker 2: Amazing that would be wonderful. Thank you for your work.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Thanks Maddie,