More than 1,000 scans and X-rays are carried out across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde every day, helping clinical teams diagnose illness and injury and make vital decisions about patients’ treatment and care.
Today, on International Day of Radiology and World Radiography Day, NHSGGC is celebrating the radiographers and radiologists behind that work and the skill, expertise and compassion they bring to patients across Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Their work reaches virtually every part of healthcare.
It could involve someone rushed to hospital after a serious accident, a patient being investigated for worrying symptoms or someone undergoing treatment for cancer.
During the past 12 months alone, NHSGGC Diagnostic Imaging departments have carried out:
- 178,102 CT scans.
- 88,788 MR scans.
- 115,673 X-rays.
That is 382,563 examinations, equivalent to almost 1,050 every day.
Behind those numbers are highly skilled teams working with patients at every stage of their care.
Diagnostic radiographers produce the images clinical teams need to help diagnose illness and injury, while also explaining procedures and supporting patients through their examinations.
Therapeutic radiographers play a key role in cancer care, helping to plan and deliver radiotherapy and supporting patients throughout their treatment.
Radiologists are specialist doctors who interpret medical images to help diagnose illness and guide treatment, as well as carrying out procedures using imaging technology.
The professions are celebrated internationally on 8 November, the anniversary of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895, which transformed medicine by allowing doctors to see inside the human body without surgery.
The International Day of Radiology, now in its 15th year, highlights the contribution radiology makes to safe patient care and the role radiologists and radiographers play throughout the patient journey.
Ann Traquair-Smith, Director of Diagnostics at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “Every one of these examinations represents a patient who needs our help, and very often somebody who is worried, in pain or facing a great deal of uncertainty.
“Our radiographers and radiologists bring together remarkable technical expertise and some of the most advanced technology available in healthcare, but just as important is the care and reassurance they provide to patients.
“Their work touches many areas of modern healthcare, whether they are helping to identify a serious injury in an emergency, supporting the diagnosis and treatment of cancer or investigating the cause of symptoms which are affecting someone’s everyday life.
“On International Day of Radiology and World Radiography Day, I want to thank all of our radiologists, radiographers and colleagues across our imaging services for their professionalism, compassion and extraordinary contribution to patient care every day.”
