Description

SMC has a busy Accident and Emergency department and the A/E radiology section consequently images over 66,000 patients a year. Emergency services are intended to help people who have had trauma or acute surgical or medical problems.

The patients are members of the public, including children, with all types of medical or surgical problems; such as asthma, chest pain, severe headache, abdominal pain, traumatic injuries and Health Center (HC) referrals. Radiology A/E consists of 2 radiography rooms to serve all A/E patients. We also have a small patient waiting area and two changing cubicles one for males and the other for females.

We do not accept any non-emergency cases or any referrals from the clinic in this section. However, in-patient radiography can be performed outside working hours in this section.

Around 250 examinations are done daily.

Procedure

All plain radiography examinations are performed in those two rooms such as all extremities, joints (hands, knee, wrist, Legs, feet, elbow & etc.), chest, abdomen, spine and skull. Patients with potentially life-threatening conditions or the seriously ill can be imaged in the resuscitation room by the mobile X-Ray unit.

Requests for special procedures are ordered only by the medical/surgical on-call physicians following discussion with the radiologist on-call.

Should an Orthopantomography (OPG) be required, it may be performed in the skull unit, which is Room 17 located near the A/E section. For more details about techniques see the SMC Radiology Examination Protocol.

Preparations

Most of plain radiography examination do not require any kind of preparation except some examinations such as skull X-Ray, when the patient is instructed to remove hairpins, jewelry, eyeglasses, hearing aids and any removable dental work that could obscure the images.

Imaging is avoided in pregnancy except if strongly indicated by the referring physician. In that case, the radiograph is obtained with the abdomen/pelvis covered by a lead apron. Alternatively, other imaging modalities such as Ultrasound may be considered.

Precautions

• Pregnancy: as above.
• Stabilisation during c-spine imaging.

Location

There are 2 rooms for general radiology purpose (Room No.1 & Room No.2) located in the A/E Department.

There is also one X-Ray mobile unit which is located in the resuscitation room and used in emergency situations.

Tel. 17284084 / 17284106 Ext.: 4084-4106
Weekends: bleep No. 4084.

Equipment

Two DR radiology units manufactured by Agfa (DX-D 500). Mobile Equipment is manufactured by Philips (Practice 300) and one DR mobile unit. There are also two Agfa computed radiography (CR), and has a link with A/E Department so they can be able to view the patient images through Agfa workstation or through I-SEHA web viewer.

Available Staff

During regular working days, three radiographers are posted. In the weekend there are five radiographers, one Health Appointment & Records Coordinator and one Medical Services Aide. At all times there is one team leader who is in charge of the duty shift. In the 2nd shift duty there are six radiographers in total, two of whom cover the A/E section with the help of one Health Appointment & Records Coordinator and one Medical Services Aide.

In the night duty there are four radiographers (who also cover A/E) and one Medical Services Aide.

NB: In every shift we have one radiographer to cover the CT call and sometime MRI Radiographer on duty.

Timing

24 Hours