PATIENTS and staff at Cork University Hospital risk exposure to, ionisation radiation because X rays are carried out in non dedicated X ray rooms in the hospital's accident and emergency department, a private report on the section claims.
The accident area's resuscitation room has been used to X ray patients despite not being designed for such diagnostic procedures, according to the report's author, Australian consultant Dr Tony Harrington.
"The resuscitation room is often used to X ray patients but this room is not lead lined and patients and staff in nearby areas are subjected to ionising radiation," said Dr Harrington, a consultant who worked in the hospital for four months on an exchange basis.
The allegation is one of several criticisms of the accident and emergency unit in his 30 page personal report.
Dr Harrington claims that while the commitment and quality of medical, nursing and other staff at the department are excellent, the facilities were the worst he had seen in the developed world.
In addition, Dr Harrington says the department relies too heavily on junior doctors who due to pressure of work miss up to four fractures every week.
This could have serious legal consequences, he said. "I believe the hospital will have serious medico legal problems in the not too distant future."
He also claimed that the lack of an environmental temperature control in the accident unit had resulted in staff sweating so much during the summer that in one case their sweat dripped into a patient's wounds.
Dr Harrington also alleged that the electrical wiring of the resuscitation area was "not only primitive but dangerous". Describing the wiring in the area as "a spaghetti of cords", he says it puts staff at risk of electrocution and presents a major hazard that somebody will trip over and suffer injury.
Contacted regarding Dr Harrington's claims, a Southern Health Board spokeswoman said the report raised several issues which the chief executive, Mr Sean Hurley, would discuss with board members at its meeting today.
The SHB had recognised there were inadequacies in the service but it had begun a programme of improvement, including the appointment of an additional accident and emergency consultant, she added.