Filenews 9 November 2021
Ten modern mobile radiographic digital systems were purchased by the Organization of State Health Services (CYSO) with the aim of further upgrading and improving the services offered to patients. The cost of the ten radiographic systems amounts to one million euros and there is a prospect of buying ten more machines.
The CSO's investment was presented today at a press conference at Nicosia General Hospital. These machines, with which all the hospitals of the Organization were staffed, allow the immediate movement and examination of the diagnostic picture of patients by the medical officers from wherever they are.
Speaking at the conference, the Executive General Manager of the Nicosia Directorate of the Cyprus Health Organization Kyriakos Georgiou, said that so far three machines have been delivered to the Nicosia General Hospital, one to the Makarios Hospital, two to the Limassol General Hospital, two to the Larnaca General Hospital, one to the Paphos Hospital and one to the Famagusta Hospital.
As Mr. Georgiou said, an important advantage of the new digital systems is the fact that they allow the direct movement and examination of the diagnostic picture of patients by medical officers from wherever they are with power supply from the internal batteries of the system.
These batteries, he explained, can push the system up to 20 kilometres or perform 250 X-rays without the need for recharging. He said that the movement of the systems is done with maximum ease while its construction allows the greatest possible visibility for safety and ease of movement with the folding column that descends below the height of the operator's eyes.
During the presentation of the new equipment, in the context of the conference, the Head of the Department of Medical Physics of the CySEC, Dr. Prodromos Kaplanis, after analyzed the capabilities of the new equipment, stressed that although digital radiographic systems are another useful and important tool, for the immediate diagnosis and monitoring of patients, their use should be limited only when it is necessary to radiography and only when it is not practical to transport the patient in the Radiology Department.
As he also said, before receiving the systems, it was necessary to carry out all the necessary acceptance checks and the process of optimizing the clinical protocols by officers of the Medical Physics Branch.
The new systems allow the archiving of the examinations in the PACS System (System for the Imaging, Distribution and Archiving of Images, i.e. X-rays, MRI and CT scans, ultrasounds), which was developed by the Department of Medical Physics of the CySEC, and which was awarded a Silver Award at the Cyprus Healthcare Business Awards 2021 in the category Quality of Services.
This allows medicine physicists to continuously study and evaluate the diagnostic picture, but also the radiation dose received by patients, aiming at improving the diagnostic picture while reducing the radiological dose, which is quite difficult, but feasible.
It is worth noting that, although the new machines provide a medical picture of high diagnostic value and importance, however, the patient receives a 30-50% reduced dose of radiation compared to previous technology.
Also, in order to make the best possible and most appropriate use of them, the officers of the Department of Medical Physics, in collaboration with the Technologists - Radiologists, created different examination protocols depending not only on the clinical needs, but also depending on the body type and the age of the examinee. For example, special examination protocols were created in the system that was delivered to the Makarios Hospital, thus reducing even further the radiological dose with which newborns and young children are examined.
CySO's optimism for a solution to the problems with X-rays
Optimistic that a solution will be found between the CySEC and radiologists for the problems of the operators of the radiology equipment, the Executive General Manager of the Nicosia Directorate of the CySEC, Kyriakos Georgiou, is presented.
In his statements on the sidelines of a press conference on the presentation of the new modern mobile radiographic digital systems, Mr. Georgiou said that the X-rays had announced measures for last Monday, however, after consultations, they decided not to proceed with the measures. "We are in discussions and I think somewhere we will find the solution," he said.
