Survey on frequency of medical exposure in Hebei province / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To acquire the basic information on diagnostic radiology and radiotherapy institutions and the frequency of medical radiation of Hebei province in 2016.Methods A survey was made using questionnaires for basic information on medical X-ray diagnosis,interventional radiology,radiotherapy and clinical nuclear medicine.Values of frequencies were derived for each type of medical X-ray procedure by dividing the total population.Results In 2016 there were 2 951 institutions at province level and 6 966 pieces of equipment involved in diagnostic radiology and radiotherapy treatments.Frequency values were estimated to be 379.25 examinations per 1 000 population in medical X-ay diagnosis,2.31 per 1 000 in interventional radiology,0.55 per 1 000 in radiotherapy and 1.65 per 1 000 in clinical nuclear medicine.The frequency for CT examination was 136.39 per 1 000,accounting for 36％ of the total frequencies in the province,with average annual growth rate of 12.4％.The highest value of frequency in clinical nuclear medicine was from Shijiazhuang among all types of medical procedures in different regions,11 times higher than the lowest value found in Hengshui city.Although the number of tertiary hospitals only accounted for 2.3％ of the total number of institutions,they contributed 25.5％,by examination number,of the medical X-ray diagnosis and 35.3％ of the CT examination.Interventional radiology and radiotherapy contributed more than 70％ of the total frequencies in the province,and clinical nuclear medicine was as high as 97.7％.Conclusions The basic information on diagnostic radiology and radiotherapy institutions and the frequency of medical procedures in Hebei in 2016 have been preliminarily made clear.Medical exposure could maintain a long-term growth trend.The frequency distribution of medical procedures in various regions and medical institutions is highly unbalanced.It is desirable to enhance the macroeconomic regulation and the management of medical radiation protection in order to rationally perform all types of diagnostic radiology and radiotherapy treatments to protect the health and safety of the patients and the examined individuals,and to promote the sustainable development of the health care services.