Healthcare watchdog calls on hospitals to ensure they are not exposing patients to unnecessary doses of radiation.
Radiography is getting safer but even more can be done to minimise patients being exposed to unnecessary radiation.
This was the Society and College of Radiographers' (SCoR) response to a Healthcare Commission report on investigations into incidents where patients have received unnecessary doses of radiation, or have been exposed to levels that are too high.
In the first report of its type, the Commission analyses 329 incidents reported to it during the 14 month period from November 2006 to December 2007 under the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations (2000).
“Radiographers have been driving a culture of making sure that adverse incidents are reported,” said Richard Evans, the SCoR’s CEO of the Society and College.
“Reports have increased because healthcare professionals understand that it is wrong to hush-up incidents. If a mistake is reported, others can learn from it and there is a significant chance that the same error will not be repeated. It is good news that the Healthcare Commission is going to investigate organisations that have not reported incidents so that exemplary practice can be learned from, and any remaining centres where incident reporting is not happening, can be encouraged to improve.”
The Society and College says that the report findings underline the importance of ensuring that only appropriately trained and qualified professionals should be administering radiation to patients.
“Radiographers are trained to ensure that the referral for an examination or treatment is justified and that the administration of radiation and the evaluation of the results are carried out properly,” Richard Evans commented.
Click here to view the HCC report.
