"X ray department"

Dear Donna Dear

Apologies for your experience within our department and apologies in advance for my convoluted response as this isn’t a simple answer so bear with me………We have many x-ray rooms and many different types of x-ray requests I can categorically confirm that patients are imaged in chronological order where possible. Certain rooms can perform certain examinations and will become available for the next patient in different frequency. Radiographers prioritises appointment by both appointment time, imaging request and room availability. Therefore to the naked eye it may appear from a patients perspective that we taking patients out of order. We are constantly moving patient demand between our x-ray rooms, and different modalities I.e X-ray, CT, Ultrasound, MRI from the same waiting area. Also please bear in mind that due to covid 19 we have significantly diminished x-ray capacity, unpredictable work loads and extra cleaning/decontamination procedures to adhere to. Our patients unfortunately will and have experienced longer waiting times than would be normal. We also have to prioritise patients urgency against their covid risk status, for example if a patient presents at reception and identifies as high morbidity risk to covid exposure then we have to expedite them through our department to minimise the risk to them.

Whilst it may seem there is no co-ordination to our working methods I can assure you that is a well established method to our ways or working. We have to prioritise A&E/Inpatients over GP and Outpatient referrals due to urgency and potential covid 19 exposure. Our GP patients are given appointment times as we can no longer provide direct access imaging. As a result depending on how busy the flow through the hospital is, GP and OPD attendances may be required to wait longer than normal.

Please bear with us we are trying out utmost to provide the best possible imaging service under what can only be described as the most challenging set of circumstances I have ever experienced in my 20 years service. It really isn’t as simple as going in chronological order of arrival:- we have so much more to consider and the radiographers do not get to pick and choose who they image and when. I hope this answers your question thoroughly.

Regards

Paul