BMJ  2007;334:381 (24 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39128.707569.3A

Letters

Radiotherapy harm

Service delivery should be funded centrally

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Donaldson does a considerable disservice to the work of the multidisciplinary members of radiotherapy departments, including radiographers and physicists, and misleads the more general readership of the BMJ, in implying that these errors are not being actively addressed.1

Following the incident at the Beatson Oncology Centre, Glasgow, every department in the United Kingdom was asked to evaluate its service in the light of the report.2 Fourteen separate action points were identified by our team, the first and most important of which is chronic understaffing in the treatment planning section. Even though processes are robust, most of the checking procedures are manual, and rely on staff working efficiently at a reasonable work rate; we compare unfavourably with the Beatson in terms of staff (especially physicists), linear accelerators, and patient ratios.

There are, undoubtedly, process flaws, but they lie less in the processes and standard operating procedures staff use in radiation . . . [Full text of this article]

Bruce Sizer, consultant in clinical oncology, Philip Murray, consultant in clinical oncology, Alan Lamont, consultant in clinical oncology

Essex County Hospital, Colchester CO3 3HY

bruce.sizer@essexrivers.nhs.uk


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Reducing harm from radiotherapy
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BMJ 2007 334: 272. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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