NHS Grampian is a massive hospital trust covering a large geographic catchment area. It employs 17.5 thousand staff.
We provide radiology solutions across multiple areas in the hospital and community and have a legal obligation to provide the correct personal protection equipment (PPE) for our employees, under IR17 regulations. We also have a legal obligation to store the PPE in a way which ensures it is not damaged.
Long term ionising radiation exposure causes a variety of deterministic and stochastic health effects.
Protective clothing and devices such as lead aprons, thyroid collars, glasses and ceiling suspended screens and table mounted lead curtains will help avoid the above effects.
The combination of heavy garments and suboptimal ergonomics can lead to onset or exacerbation of already common maladies of the spine and other joints in our workforce which are annoying at best, and career-ending at worst
It is incumbent upon each operator to be knowledgeable, practice good habits, and to advocate for their own protection. Managers can work with companies to get the best products available, which provide the correct level of protection while keeping the musculoskeletal system as free of injury as possible. Managing this comes at a significant cost.
This presentation looks at practical solutions to proving the above, for a large NHS site.
Educational aims:
Help other managers with large remits of radiation workers, understand the long term challenges around providing PPE for an ever growing work force and ensuring the products are stored safely and are fit for purpose for many years to come.
• Understand both the importance of and how to undertake quantitative radiation risk assessments
• Understand the practical issues associated with the personal monitoring of high risk staff groups
• Understand the role of management responsibility and performance management to ensure safe practice
• Understand how ‘co-operation of employers’ impinges upon real dose managements systems