Harmful scanners in hospitals

Monitoring body AERB conducts surprise raids at 9 centres

A few hospitals in the city, including Gandhi Hospital, and diagnostic centres are operating X-Ray and CT scan machines without obtaining licences from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which monitors the radiation of the equipment.

The AERB, in a surprise raid, inspected nine medical institutions in Hyderabad and sealed 15 high-dose imaging equipment, mostly CT scan machines.

Though all these facilities had low potential radiological risks, they did not have the requisite licence from AERB and also did not confirm to some of the imperative radiological safety requirements.

Mr Mahesh M. of AERB said, “AERB is a statutory board which regulates radiation generating equipment in India like X-ray machines CT scans etc.; all institutions or hospitals that operate Xrays must register with AERB.

“The board will first evaluate whether it is safe for the patient by verifying the quality assurance (QA) report and the layout of the room. The layout should be of such design that the radiation should not affect anyone outside,” he said

“But most of the inspected hospitals and diagnostic centres in city are working without licences. There’s no proper layout or no QA done. They have to get the certifi- cation from AERB every two years,” Mr Mahesh added.

The major violations identified were lack of quality assurance checks, lack of proper layout and operators not wearing Personnel Radiation Monitoring TLD badges (which monitors radiation levels).