Christie Medical Physics and Engineering Newsletter 70 May 2022

your RP Contacts at CMPE. Some information can be found here: https://www.protecx.co.uk/shop/urology theatre-custom/

guidance-on-irmer-implications-for-clinical practice-in-radiotherapy.pdf

You will need to consider if your orga nisation’s Radiation Protection policy and IRMER Employer’s procedures reflect this updated incident terminology and if they meet the requirements of IRMER17 around the analysis of ‘clinically significant’ accidental or unintended exposures, ensuring the referrer, practitioner and individual exposed

(Clinically) Significant Accidental and Unintended Exposures guidance IRMER is designed to protect people while undergoing examinations and treatments using ionising radiation. When there is an accidental or unintended exposure to ionising radiation, and the IRMER employer knows or thinks that it is significant, they must investigate the incident and report it to the appropriate IRMER enforcing authority under Regulation 8(4). The Care Quality Commission issued their guidance in June 2019 (updated in August 2020), for employers and duty-holders, on significant accidental and unintended exposures under IRMER. This guidance supersedes previous guidance relating to the investigation and notification of medical exposures ‘ much greater than intended ’ . The quoted changes in version 2 are: • Redefined notification criteria for radiotherapy planning and verification imaging with added examples (page 5) • New notification criteria for nuclear medicine therapy incidents (page 5) • Guidance on applying notification criteria to laterality errors (page 6)

(or their representative) are informed of these occurrences and the outcome of the analysis.

Personal Dosimetry

Staff Radiation Dosimetry

CMPE provide a comprehensive personal and environmental radiation dosimetry service through our partner organisation, the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England). We issued a letter to our customers in Dec 2018 setting out the expectations of managing the interactions between UKHSA and the facility who uses the dosimetry. If you would like a copy, please ask your CMPE contact. There are two items to bring to your attention at this stage. Non-classified members of staff are OFTEN given personal dosemeters so that the employer can demonstrate that the dose received is restricted to an appropriate level. Classified members of staff MUST be monitored (by an Approved Dosimetry Service). Whether a member of staff is classified or not, those who have been provided with a dosemeter by their employer have a duty to look after that dosemeter and return it for processing. The employer has a duty to ensure staff are trained in the use of the personal dosimetry provided. The Thermoluminescent detector (TLD) technology inside the dosemeters is valuable and if lost, there is a charge of ~£24 per dosemeter that is passed directly to the employer through the CMPE annual contracts. The cost of lost badges across CMPE customers in the north west Lost dosemeters

https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/20200826_sau e_guidance_updated_aug20.pdf

The definition of ‘clinically significant’ was left to the professional bodies to establish and this has now been published.

• For diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine see: https://www.rcr.ac.uk/publication/irmer implications-diagnostic-imaging interventional-radiology-diagnostic-nuclear medicine • For radiotherapy see: https://www.rcr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/

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