The Indian Express Written by Adil Akhzer | Chandigarh | Published:January 21, 2016 2:12 am
AT LEAST two staffers at a Chandigarh government hospital, who worked in its X-ray department, have been detected with high levels of radiation, with one of them sent for further examination to the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai.
One of the staffers was a dark room assistant, while the other was a technical assistant in the radiography department of the Government Multi Speciality Hospital (GMSH). Both are women. Both have been taken off their lab duties and assigned clerical work at another government hospital.
The BARC will examine the dark room assistant on February 1. She is to undergo a Chromosome Aberration test there.
Dr Vandana Gupta, medical superintendent, GMSH, confirmed to The Indian Express that the hospital had received reports of two staff members with over exposure of TLD (radiation monitoring).
“We are sending one of them for test, to see if the woman is really exposed to radiation or it was due to some fault in the TLD badge,” she said. “We are already taking measures for the safety of the employees.”
The TLD badge or thermoluminescent dosimeter is worn by radiography staff and is used for monitoring radiation levels. The badges are sent every three months to an agency in Bihar authorised by BARC, and BARC sends the analysis back to the hospital. In the last report that the GMSH received, BARC flagged the high exposure of the two employees.
Gupta said one of the staffers had given in writing that she had left her badge inside the room, and that the high reading was because of this. “We think that the other one, too, was not following the guidelines , but we are sending her to BARC just to ensure that everything is okay with her,” said Gupta .
GMSH, located in Chandigarh’s Sector-16, has three X-ray machines in three separate rooms. On a visit to the hospital on Wednesday, The Indian Express saw X-rays being conducted in rooms with their doors open, wooden slats used as shutters in one of the rooms and non-functional red and green alert bulbs.
Sources said before the two staffers were detected with high radiation exposure, a team from BARC had visited the hospital and asked the administration to “modify” the department to ensure the safety of the employees. Gupta confirmed this.
“A team came here for the inspection and they suggested some modifications for the X-ray machine rooms and we are working on it. We have the drawings ready and we have sent them to the engineering wing,” she said.
Explaining the lack of infrastructure, Gupta said that the “hospital is very old” and when the department was set up, there were no guidelines. “We are now modifying it according to the latest guidelines by the BARC in Mumbai,” she said.
She said the hospital had taken “full precautions” by replacing the lead sheets that staffers must wear while conducting X-rays. The radiography department of the hospital has around 12 technicians.
Sushmita Ghosal, Professor and Head, Department of Radiotherapy, PGIMER, said: “The radiation safety officer must see what went wrong and why this is happening. If the regulatory authority has suggested a method of correction, it should be implemented immediately.”
UT Director of Health Services Dr V K Gagneja, who is also heading the hospital, said they are investigating the matter. “We are checking if there is a leakage inside the room or the level was recorded high because the staff had put their TLD badges in the almirah inside the X-ray room. They (staff) don’t wear them most of the time,” he said.
