Elsevier

Clinical Radiology

Volume 41, Issue 4, April 1990, Pages 264-267
Clinical Radiology

Original Paper
Accident and emergency reporting in UK teaching departments

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0009-9260(05)81662-9Get rights and content

A survey of 44 UK training departments shows that trainee radiologists commence accident and emergency (A & E) reporting after an average of 10.2 months in radiology and perform a considerable proportion of the A & E reporting workload. Most respondents consider that they supervise junior staff but only 11 departments directly check their work and only two departments offer supervision to staff with more than 2 years' experience. All A & E radiographs are reported in 79.9% of hospitals and the other hospitals operate selective reporting policies. The delay between the radiographic examination and the radiology report reaching the A & E department is less than 48 hours in about two-thirds of departments when the examination is performed Monday to Friday, but exceeds 48 hours in two-thirds of departments when it is performed at weekends.

Misinterpretation of radiographs is one of the commonest errors in A & E. Improved supervision of less experienced trainees is required. Consultants should contribute and one should be responsible for this area. Radiological conferences are important and the secretarial services require major improvement.

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