"X ray with an Insulin pump"

Dear Mumoftype1

Thank you for taking the time to share your recent experience. All feedback is important to us and I will share this information with all members of the team so they can learn from this. I am sorry that staff questioned why you were taking the insulin pump off. As you are aware it is important to remove the pump and I apologise that staff were not aware of this.

I will raise awareness of correct procedures and educate staff appropriately. Thank you again for sharing this information and apologies again that all staff were not aware.

I hope your daughter is recovering well from her injury.

Kind Regards

Lise

Dear Mumoftype1,

Thank you very much for taking the time to raise your concern regarding staff knowledge on patients attending Radiology for an X-ray with an insulin pump.

I’ve spoken with our Radiation Protection Advisor as a result of your feedback and have been advised that; to date, there has been no evidence of harm to these devices due to exposure to radiation. If there was any concrete evidence of this a Medical Devices Bulletin would be issued by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to all medical facilities to ensure that robust procedures were put in place to ensure patient safety.

That said, it is essential to remove your insulin pump before entering a MRI scan room as these scanners have very strong magnets and could cause a serious injury or adverse effect to the ferromagnetic components within the insulin pump.

As the manufacturer states that these devices should not go through MRI, airport scanners or x-ray machines, then I think it is sensible that where practical the insulin pump is removed during this time; staff should be aware that users may remove their insulin pump for a short period of time.

Radiology departments do not receive information on every medical device that may be in use, and even if they did, the same advice often does not apply to all devices of a similar type.

In future, I’d recommend that you continue to inform medical staff of your daughter's insulin pump prior to any investigation and your concerns should be taken into account by staff. I will liaise with Lise and ensure that staff are more aware of manufacturers advice and potential risks.

I hope that this is helpful for any future radiology exam and that your daughter is recovering from her foot injury.

Kind regards

Elaine

Dear Mumoftype1,

Thank you for your feedback about the staff, we'll ensure your kind words are shared with our colleagues in the Emergency and Radiology departments.

I hope your daughter is recovering from her foot injury.

Kind regards

Rick