One tiny step change ....

[RogerS]

...in the NHS.

I recently popped down to our excellent community hospital for some x-rays including a chest x-ray. When I arrived for my appointment, the lass behind the desk said 'Pop down to the end of the corridor, take your sweater off and take a seat. The radiographer will be down shortly'.

A few minutes later, he came down and after we went into the radiography room, and the first thing he asked me was to take off my shirt. No problem...as a naturist I have no body hang-ups ! X-ray taken, wait for a quick check they were OK then it was shirt back on and we moved on to do the other x-rays.

But I got to thinking how inefficient this was. What a waste of the radiographers' time with me taking my shirt on and off. If I was elderly then the time needed could be even longer with arthritic fingers. So why not change into a gown beforehand and back into street clothes afterwards. That would be done in my time rather than wasting the radiographers' time - resulting in an improvement in the use of scarce resources.

So I contacted the radiography dept to suggest this and was pleasantly surprised a few days later to get a call from one of the consultant radiographers who put the other side of the coin, namely that some patients were uncomfortable sitting in a gown in a mixed sex environment hence their default position. Fair enough.

But she did then go on to say that she thought my idea was a sensible one and that they would now modify their reception chat to invite patients to change into a gown if they would like to rather than adopt the inefficient default position that I found myself in.

One tiny step change ....

 

[Rod]

It's nice that they took notice.

In my local hospital they have changing rooms with cubicles where you change into gowns after removing any garments that might contain metals which generally means trousers etc.
The gowns cover-up very well and although the waiting area is unisex there's generally only one other person waiting there as the main waiting area is in another room.
Hospital inpatients enter the "machine rooms" from adjacent rooms from different doors.
It's very efficient, they use an electronic booking-in machine and I've always been dealt with on time.
The only downside is the lack of parking as the car parks are always full. No problem if you get dropped off or use the park and ride.
The most "interesting" scans I've had are CT ones where I have to drink 1 litre of water just before and retain it!
They last about 40mins and include an Iodine injection which gives you a hot flush - fortunately there's a WC immediately available adjacent to the room - what relief!! [emoji3]

Rod