We have a vacancy for achief technologist to lead our team of radiation protection technologists. Please see hullmedicalphysics.uk for more information and links to apply. Closing date is 14th April 2024.
An article has been published in Physics World on how introducing automated tools into the treatment planning process has enabled the clinical team at the UK's Castle Hill Hospital to improve consistency while also achieving significant time savings. Please click here to read the full article.
The department recently took part in filming on the topic of Intelligence in RT Imaging and Planning as part of their reference site role with Siemens Healthineers, this was a unique opportunity to get a professional film crew into highlight our department and what we are doing for our patients.
We have a vacancy for an imaging physicist, to specialise in MRI. Please see hullmedicalphysics.uk for more information and links to apply. Closing date is 1st April 2024.
Health Education England are funding three 3-year apprenticeships based at Castle Hill Hospital. This is a fantastic opportunity to gain a full funded BSc in healthcare science while working in a salaried position as part of one of the medical physics teams in Hull. More details can be found at hullmedicalphysics.uk.
The three apprenticeships are in three different discipline in Medical Physics -
Congratulations to our team member, Steven Jones, who has achieved HCPC registration as a Clinical Scientist. Steven achieved this through the Association of Clinical Scientists "Route 2" scheme, involving in-house training to supplement his previous acedemic qualifications and experience as a clinical technologist, followed by submission and scrutinee of a 160 page portfolio of evidence and a two hour viva voce by two expert assessors. Steven specialises in radiation protection and diagnostic radiology imaging.
Congratulations to our team member, Duane Coombs, who after three years of hard study has been awarded a first class honours degree in Healthcare Science (Radiation Physics) from the University of Cumbria. This has enable him to achieve professional registration on the Register of Clinical Technologists (RCT). The RCT is a register accredited by the UK's Professional Standarda Authority.
In order to maintain the highest standards, our policy has always been to have staff registered or on a supervised route to registration, and currently all members of the Hullrad Radiation Physics team are registered professionals with either the Register of Clinical Technologists or the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
A new Molecular Imaging Research Centre is nearing completion at Castle Hill Hospital, and has just taken delivery of a 30 tonne, state-of-the-art cyclotron. The cycloton will fire a 7.8 MeV proton beam at targets to produce radiopharmaceutical tracers for use with PET/CT scanners. The Hullrad team has been providing radiation protection advice for this new and exciting development. See the Daisy Appeal website for more details.
Our parent Trust is changing from using @hey.nhs.uk email addresses to @nhs.net in the coming months. The new email addresses for members of the team can be found on our CONTACT US page. For the time being we are monitoring both our new and old email addresses, but later in 2021 the @hey.nhs.uk will switch to an automatic "not in use" response and we will no longer be able to see emails sent to @hey.nhs.uk.
Our email address will continue to forward any emails it receives to the entire team.
[1st August 2021 Update - we no longer have access to emails sent to @hey.nhs.uk addresses]
Public Health England (PHE) and the Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) have published a revision of the 2001 NRPB Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-ray Equipment.
The new PHE/FGDP 2020 Guidance Notes for Dental Practitioners on the Safe Use of X-ray Equipment also incorporates guidance on the use of hand-held dental X-ray units and cone-beam CT (CBCT) units.
CQC (England), HIS (Scotland), HIW (Wales), and RQIA (Northern Ireland) will issue an update of their CV-19 specific IRMER advice on Monday 24th August. This will be available for download from here.
New guidance has been published for implementing the Ionising Radiation (Medical exposure) Regulations 2017
We have now restarted the routine testing of all X-ray equipment. Those clients whose equipment was due for testing in the last two months will be contacted to discuss how testing can be undertaken safely for all in the light of the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. Any clients whose equipment is due later in the year, but would like their equipment testing a little early in anticipation of an increased clinical workload when restrictions are lifted, can contact us to discuss options for doing so.
CQC (England), HIS (Scotland), HIW (Wales), and RQIA (Northern Ireland) have issued new joint advice in respose to the COVID-19 situation. This can be downloaded from here [Note, updated 1/4/2020 to include additional advice on changes to nuclear medicine procedures]. Note that while some requirements (or at least the interpretation of some requirements) have been relaxed, others have not, so if you are considering changes regarding the medical radiation exposure of patients you should read this advice carefully.
With regard to our services to our clients and the regulators' current advice
In order to minimise risks of spreading the coronavirus, and with short term staffing problems in the NHS caused by some staff needing to self-isolate, we regret to inform you that we may not be able to carry out routine radiation safety testing of our customers' x-ray equipment within the normal testing period. We will endeavour to arrange to undertake testing again as soon as possible but in the meantime
A joint publication has been issued by the British Institute of Radiology, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, Public Health England, the Royal College of Radiologist and the Society & College of Radiographers. "Guidance on using shielding on patients for diagnostic radiology applications", BIR/IPEM/PHE/RCR/SCoR/SRP, 2020 is a thorough review of modern practice and evidence. It states that, "Overall, the findings suggest that contact shielding (e.g. thyroid shields, lead rubber aprons, gonad shields, breast shields on patients) provides minimal or no benefit and professionals should concentrate on other areas of radiation protection which are more effective in optimising the patient radiation exposure."
The only exception in the report is for some models of dental CBCT with large field of view (FOV) where there may be some benefit to the patient. In which case it is recommended that a medical physics expert (MPE) is consulted. The report states that there is, "Insufficient evidence for small field of view but effectiveness of a thyroid shield is likely to be low due to the exclusion of the thyroid from the primary beam and the reduction in secondary radiation from tighter collimation. The use of a thyroid collar may lead to artefacts in the images. An MPE should be consulted where the use of a thyroid collar is to be considered, such as units with a large FOV."
In October 2019 the Radiotherapy Physics section of Hull's Medical Physics Service became the first medical physics service to achieve accreditation under the new "MPACE" British Standard.
Safety, treatment planning and equipment maintenance were among the areas reviewed as the team took part in the independent two-year pilot Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering (MPACE) accreditation scheme. MPACE independently reviews all aspects of healthcare science which underpin the radiotherapy treatment provided to patients.
Now the 36-strong team are the first radiotherapy physics team in the country to achieve service standard BS 70000:2017, assuring patients around the quality and safety of the service they’re receiving and the competence of staff delivering treatment.
In August we welcomed two new members of staff to the team, following the success of Danny Morris is being awarded a place on the national NHS Scientist Training Programme (STP) and the retirement of Dave Strain in May.
Andy Wood joins us with sixteen years of experience as a medical physics technologist, chiefly working with radiotherapy treatment and imaging equipment. Duane Coombs joins us with seven years working as a technician on the planned maintenance and repair of patient connected medical devices.
On the 23rd May 2019 colleagues gathered at the Queen's Centre, Castle Hill Hospital to wished Dave Strain a happy retirement after over 14 years service as a specialist radiation protection technologist in our team. In that time Dave has made a significant and vital contribution to the tremendous growth in the service to our clients and the number of clients serviced, and we are extremely grateful for all his work, wit and occasional baking over the years.
As of 1st March 2019 the name of Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has changed to Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This aims to better reflect the partnership working undertaken by the Trust with the University of Hull and with Hull York Medical School to provide expert teaching and to undertake first class research and development to further advance patient treatment.
November 2018
The Care Quality Commission (CQC have published their latest report on their enforcement of the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations in England. This report covers 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.
November 2018
New national diagnostic reference levels (NDRLs), for clinicians using radiation in medicine, were published bb the UK Government on 15th November 2018. Most values have not changed, but the following have
New radiation regulations to protect patients undergoing medical exposure came into force in February 2018. Links to the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 (IRMER17), together with the Department of Health & Social Security (DHSC) guidance can now be found on our Patient Radiation Safety page.
September 2018
An IPEM working party chaired by Tim Wood (one of the RPAs/MPEs from our group) has just published the first proposed national Dose Reference Levels for radiotherapy planning CT in Physics in Medicine and Biology. This work will allow all radiotherapy centres across the UK (and the world) to benchmark and optimise their local CT protocols to enable the best possible patient treatments, whilst ensuring the lowest dose of radiation is used (consistent with the clinical requirements). These recommendations have now been formally ratified as national Dose Reference Levels by the UK National DRL Working Party, which is led by Public Health England on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. The work of this IPEM working party continues, and a second audit of cone beam CT dose indices is about to launch very soon.
New radiation regulations to protect patients undergoing medical exposure came into force in February 2018. Links to the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 (IRMER17), together with the Department of Health & Social Security (DHSC) guidance can now be found on our Patient Radiation Safety page.
New radiation regulations are now in force.
After 27 years of service in the Radiation Physics Department, and many years before that working in both NHS and private healthcare technology, Andrew Davis has retired as our chief radiation protection technologist.
Andrew was instrumental in establishing our radiation protection services to private dental and veterinary practices in the 1990, and driving the growth and outstanding success of those services which now help over 300 dental & veterinary practices, schools and businesses across the country. Ever the champion of the vital role of medical physics technologists in enabling the safe and effective use of X-ray imaging in healthcare, Andrew's presence in the team will be greatly missed by his colleagues.
On the 1st Janaury 2018 the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 will supercede the 1999 regulations of the same name.
On 6th February 2018 the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 will supercede both the 2000 regulations of the same name and the Medicines (Administration of Radioactive Substances) Regulations 1978.
The changes have been described by the regulators as “evolutionary and not revolutionary”, but there are certain additional actions which users of radiation will need to undertake, and we are writing to all our clients with details of what they need to do.
Kevin Brownsword, radiotherapy physicist in our department, is co-author of one of the 17 scientific papers picked by the British Journal of Radiology as Best of BJR in the last year.
In Vivo Dosimetry in UK External Beam Radiotherapy: Current and Future Usage (British Journal of Radiology. 2017 Mar 16;90(1072):20160915) reviews the use of direct dose monitoring during radiotherapy patient treatment, used as a way of detecting errors in treatment.
The paper concludes, "Due to technological advances, such as electronic data transfer, independent MU checking and daily IGRT, the overall risk of adverse treatment events in radiotherapy has been substantially reduced. However, the use of IVD may prevent a serious radiation incident. Point dose IVD is not considered suited to the requirements of verifying advanced radiotherapy techniques, leaving EPID dosimetry as the current modality likely to be developed as a future standard."
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The arrival at Castle Hill Hospital of the latest radiotherapy treatment machine has been hailed by the Hull Daily Mail (21/3/2017), following a
hospital press release. The new, £1.7 million, state of the art Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator (linac) will add to the other 8 radiotherapy treatment machines, of various capabilities, used to treat cancer.
Physicists and technologists from the Radiation Physics Department will be working with Varian staff in the installation, and then undertake several weeks of rigourous testing of the safety and accuracy of the linac before the first patients benefit from its treatments in June 2017.
Where an incident has occured in which a patient received a radiation exposure "much greater than intended", the UK radiation regulations require the employer undertaking the procedure to notify forthwith
Each year we recruit two physicists onto the national training scheme for healthcare scientists in medical physics. Training takes three years, with the first year spent undertaking rotational placement in the fields of Radiotherapy Physics, Radiation Safety, Imaging with Non-ionising Radiation and Imaging with Ionising Radiation. Trainees then specialise in one of those fields. In that time, a part-time MSc degree is also undertaken at Newcastle University.
In 2017 we are looking for one trainee to specialise in Radiotherapy Physics, and one in Radiation Safety Physics. Applications should be made via the national recruitment process - see the National School of Healthcare Science website for more details.
The Radiation Physics Department had a strong showing at the recent Health Expo Hull and East Riding, with stands and posters on the new cyclotron facility that is coming to Castle Hill Hospital, Radiotherapy and VERTUAL demonstration, and the latest research and development activities being undertaken in the department. There was also a lot of interest in the careers stand with the opportunity to perform a Nuclear Medicine examination to find out what was wrong with Teddy. Highlight of the day had to be John’s homemade cyclotron, as featured in the Hull Daily Mail!
Following the collaboration of the Hull University Teaching Hospitals Radiation Physics Department with the pre-clinical research team at the University of Hull, a paper titled "A method to calibrate the RS 2000 x-ray biological irradiator for radiobiological flank irradiation of mice" has been published in Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express. This is an open access journal, meaning the full paper can be downloaded for free!
A new system of setting National DRLs for diagnostic radiology procedures has been launched with new values replacing those set by the Department of Health over a decade ago.
"The NDRLs will be regularly reviewed and updated by Public Health England (PHE), in collaboration with a working party on national dose surveys and DRLs with representation from PHE, the radiology professional bodies and the Department of Health. Data for future NDRLs will be considered from national dose surveys undertaken by PHE and from other appropriate studies."
For further details, and the latest NDRL values, please visit the PHE website.
Diagnostic Reference Levels are defined in UK legislation (IRMER) as "dose levels in medical radiodiagnostic practices or, in the case of radioactive medicinal products, levels of activity, for typical examinations for groups of standard-sized patients or standard phantoms for broadly defined types of equipment", and from 2018 will also include "interventional radiology practices". They are not intended to be compared with doses to individual patients, but to the average dose to a sample of patients (e.g. 20 patients undergoing a particular examination using a particular X-ray set).
This year, we offered two posters to the United Kingdom Radiology Congress 2015, and not only were both accepted for display, but both were awarded prizes.
Standardisation and optimisation of CT protocols using the Philips DoseRight 2.0 automatic exposure control system by Dr Tim Wood was awarded the Institute of Physics & Engineering in Medicine President’s Prize for best poster
Investigating the use of an anti-scatter grid in digital CR chest radiography by Dr Craig Moore was awarded a Highly Commended BIR/RAD poster prize.
We are pleased to announce that Dr Tim Wood has been awarded the RPA2000 Certificate of Competence to be a Radiation Protection Adviser. Such a certificate from a body authorised by the HSE is required by any person acting as a Radiation Protection Adviser under the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999. There regulations require an employer to consult a certificated RPA on;
Tim joins our other certificated RPAs, John Saunderson and Craig Moore. Tim has also been appointed, alongside John and Craig, as a Medical Physics Expert (MPE) under the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2000 (IRMER) for radiological imaging.
Go to the CONTACT US page to find out more, and to get in touch.
Dr Tim Wood continues to be in demand as an invited speaker sharing the pioneering work our service has been undertaking, and also teaching at national training days. Here are some forthcoming meetings at which he will be speaking.
ADDRESS
Radiation Physics Department
Queen's Centre
Castle Hill Hospital
Cottingham
East Yorkshire
HU16 5JQ
U.K.
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