Status of radiographic services at government hospitals in Gaza Governorates, Palestine

Abstract

The complex situation of the current health services exists to shift the system in significant ways to improve on this situation. The radiographic services need more efforts for building capacity. This study is conducted to evaluate radiographic services at government hospitals in Gaza Governorates. Triangulated study design was used for data collection. In the quantitative part, 170 radiological technologists completed questionnaires with 95.5% response rate. The researcher used arbitrated checklist to evaluate medical imaging facilities. Census study was conducted on all radiological technologists and medical imaging departments at six main government hospitals in the Gaza Strip. In addition, three key informant interviews with radiological technologist managers were conducted. Researchers directly interviewed 170 participants. Findings revealed that there was shortage in number of radiographic equipment and radiological technologists. Generally, radiographic departments that followed standard in structure were 45%. Regarding fluoroscopic rooms, 79% of structure followed the standard. The majority of existing darkrooms fulfilled the international standard. An improvement in human resources among medical imaging facilities was clearly observed after 1996. An observable shortage is seen in number of radiographic machines and radiological technologists at all government hospitals. All departments revealed clear defects in structure, design and essential supplies.