Royal Adelaide Hospital staff subjected to CAT radiation for months due to faulty lead lining
A FAULTY lead barrier resulted in radiology staff using a CAT scanner at the Royal Adelaide Hospital getting excess radiation — but patients were more fortunate.
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STAFF were exposed to radiation from a CAT scanner at the Royal Adelaide Hospital which remained in operation for months after the fault with a lead protection barrier was discovered.
Documents obtained by The Advertiser show management knew of the fault but continued to allow the machine to operate, due to the low risk of health problems.
The radiation fail is the latest health scandal exposed by The Advertiser and Sunday Mail, such as the stroke deaths rostering fiasco, chemotherapy underdosing bungle and prostate cancer testing debacle.
Lead shielding in a wall protecting staff from the powerful scanner’s radiation did not meet Australian standards when it was examined in January.
SA Health officials stress there was no risk to patients and radiation received by staff was well below legislated limits for safety.
The equipment was installed in 2008, but a compliance test in January found the shielding did not meet Australian standards.
At present 26 staff use the equipment on a rotating roster.
Allegations raised by staff in an internal investigation is that management continued to operate the scanner for four months without their knowledge.
Upgraded lead shielding is being installed at a cost of $30,000 — three months before the move to the new RAH.
SA Salaried Medical Officers Association president David Pope said the association is aware of the issue.
“It should not have happened but the belief is no-one has been exposed to anything that is likely to affect their health now or in the future,” he said.
Acting executive director SA Medical Imaging John Kolovos told The Advertiser the remediation was done to give staff peace of mind.
“At the start of February 2017 SA Medical Imaging was notified that some room lead shielding around one of the CAT scanners at the Royal Adelaide Hospital did not fully comply with the current Environment Protection Authority regulations,” he said.
“When this potential issue was identified we contacted the EPA who began a review.
“Experts from SA Health and the EPA confirmed that there is no increased exposure to any patients and the exposure to our staff is estimated to be in the vicinity of 1 millisievert (mSv) per year, well below the legislated limit of 20 mSv per year for a radiation worker.
“In April 2017, the EPA provided formal advice that the room shielding issue was extremely low risk and the CT area could continue to operate without remediation until October 2017.
“However to ensure our staff have peace of mind before the move to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital we immediately decided to do remediation work to the area which has been completed.
“We have worked closely with our staff to keep them informed throughout this process and ensure they understand there is negligible risk to them as radiation workers and no risk to our patients.”