Commentator: Li Changxu
Recently, "The radiology department was fined for not wearing protective clothing for the examinee" appeared on the hot search, causing widespread heated discussions.
Law enforcement officers from the Health Bureau of Daishan County, Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province recently found during an inspection that two people in the radiology department of a medical institution did not wear personal protective equipment when they underwent X-ray imaging examinations. The relevant radiology diagnosis and treatment personnel said that due to the large number of patients and the inconvenience of putting on and taking off protective clothing, the examinees were not reminded to wear protective clothing.
After further investigation and evidence collection, it was confirmed that the medical institution had the illegal act of shielding and protecting the sensitive organs and tissues of the subject near the irradiation field in accordance with the regulations when carrying out medical irradiation on the subject, and the Daishan County Health Bureau filed a case against the medical institution and made corresponding administrative punishments.
After reading this news, I was a little surprised and a little angry. I was surprised that I heard for the first time that I needed to wear protective clothing for X-rays, and I was angry that when I and my family went to different hospitals for physical examinations and medical appointments in the past few years, the testing doctor did not give me any warning. This undoubtedly exposes us to the risk of being examined. I'm afraid many netizens have experienced this feeling. Judging from their complaints, their experience is similar to that of me and my family. This may show that the phenomenon of inadequate protective measures for radiation diagnosis and treatment is very common.
I read the popular science of an expert from a health supervision agency, who said that X-ray is a "double-edged sword", although it can detect diseases, but it also has a certain amount of harm to the human body, especially to hematopoietic stem cells and germ cells. When the human body is exposed to a large amount of radiation in a short period of time, it can lead to serious damage to the body, and long-term radiation exposure can also cause chronic radiation injury, hematopoietic disorders and leukopenia. The prohibition of radionuclide imaging and chest X-rays in the routine check-ups of infants and adolescents, and the exclusion of abdominal radiological imaging for pregnant women between 8 and 15 weeks of conception may be due to the harmful side of X-rays.
Therefore, protection is necessary in routine X-ray (including barium swallowography, limb bone X-ray, chest X-ray, cervical X-ray, lumbar X-ray, etc.), chest X-ray, CT and mammography. Especially in chest X-ray and CT examinations with a large amount of radiation, it is more necessary to protect well. Because when X-rays are irradiated, they are often exposed to local locations, such as the lungs, etc., while other parts are exposed to radiation radiation, and individual parts, such as the thyroid, gonads, eyes, etc., are very sensitive and need to be protected. The protective equipment needed is not only protective clothing, but also protective aprons, protective necks, protective hats, protective glasses, etc.
There are clear regulations on the personal protection of the examinee. Article 9 of the "Provisions on the Administration of Radiological Diagnosis and Treatment" stipulates that workplaces where medical institutions carry out radiology and other X-ray imaging diagnosis shall be equipped with protective equipment for staff and personal protective equipment of the examinees, shielding and protecting sensitive organs and tissues adjacent to the irradiation site, and informing patients and examinees of the health effects of radiation in advance. Article 41 of the regulations also clarifies how to punish those who fail to use safety guards and personal protective equipment in accordance with the regulations. Daishan County punished a certain medical institution in accordance with this provision.
The negative hazards of X-rays are clearly known, and the management regulations for radiation diagnosis and treatment are so strict, but many medical institutions still regard protective equipment as decorations, and the reason for this is that they are still pursuing the efficiency of examinations. After all, putting on and taking off protective equipment can take longer than it does for check-ups, which is obviously not cost-effective in a busy medical environment. Between the efficiency of examinations and the health of patients, medical institutions have chosen the former.
But no matter how you say it, health cannot easily give way to efficiency, and the health of patients and examinees is greater than the sky, and medical staff cannot abandon this principle. For patients and examinees, they should also be responsible for themselves, strengthen their awareness of prevention, and dare to report and supervise when they see that medical institutions do not follow the "regulations", and force them to be unambiguous and not to deal with issues of principle.