X-ray Equipment

HC Deb 29 July 1988 vol 138 cc782-3W

Mrs. Wise

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services when the guidance on the use of X-ray equipment, to which the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member of Derbyshire, South (Mrs. Currie), referred on 25 July,Official Report, column 29, was sent out; and to whom it was sent.

Mrs. Currie

The guidance to which I referred was "Guidance Notes for the Protection of Persons Against Ionising Radiations Arising from Medical and Dental Use". The document replaced the "Code of Practice for the Protection of Persons Against Ionising Radiations arising from Medical and Dental Use", first published in 1957. The last revision of the code was in 1972, and guidance to similar effect was given in that publication.

Copies of the guidance notes—the result of a joint initiative by the National Radiological Protection Board, the Health Departments and the Health and Safety Executive—were distributed to all regional medical officers and radiation protection advisers, as well as all general managers of regional health authorities, district health authorities, and special health authorities for the London postgraduate teaching hospitals on 5 May 1988. A copy is in the Library.

Mrs. Wise

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will be seeking any information on X-ray equipment inventories in the private health care sector beyond that to be made available to him under the Ionising Radiations (Protection of Persons Undergoing Medical Examination) Regulations to monitor the appropriateness of that equipment and the extent of the X-ray exposures which will result from the use.

Mrs. Currie

Inspectors of the Health and Safety Executive during the course of normal inspections will wish to satisfy themselves that X-ray equipment meets the requirements of regulation 33(1) of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1985—namely, that it should be of such design and construction and so installed and maintained as to be capable of restricting, so far as reasonably practicable, the exposure to ionising radiations of any person undergoing a medical exposure to the extent that this is compatible with the clinical purpose in view.

Inventories kept under regulations 9 of the Ionising Radiation (Protection of Persons Undergoing Medical Examination or Treatment) Regulations 1988 will assist in this matter.

Mrs. Wise

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what procedures he intends to adopt to monitor the appropriateness of X-ray equipment acquisition in the private health sector and to monitor the extent of X-ray exposures which result from that equipment;

(2) if he intends to take any steps to discourage unnecessary proliferation of equipment for X-ray diagnosis in the private health care sector.

Mrs. Currie

Private health care organisations are independent bodies and may acquire what X-ray equipment they require. All users of X-ray equipment are subject to the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and related legislation.

District health authorities have a general responsibility to ensure that medical, surgical and nursing equipment in private nursing homes and hospitals is adequately maintained. As part of this responsibility, they must inspect each establishment at least twice a year.

The Ionising Radiations Regulations 1985 put a duty on employers to appoint a radiation protection adviser whose functions include the monitoring of X-ray equipment. The Ionising Radiations (Protections of Persons undergoing Medical Examination or Treatment) Regulations 1988 require employers to keep records of such equipment.

Mrs. Wise

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the rate of replacement of obsolete X-ray equipment in the National Health Service.

Mrs. Currie

I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Leyton (Mr. Cohen) on 4 February 1988 at column741.