Current status of the application of radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy resources in Huai'an City in 2020

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the current status of the radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy resources and medical exposure frequencies in Huai'an City. Methods: According to the monitoring data in the " Radiological Health Information Management Platform of Jiangsu Province" in 2020, a descriptive analysis was conducted on the personnel, equipment, and exposure frequencies in the institutes engaged in radiation-based diagnosis and treatment in Huai'an. Results: A total of 181 hospitals were investigated in 2020, including 7 tertiary hospitals(3.9%), 24 secondary hospitals(13.3%), 126 primary hospitals(69.6%), and 24 ungraded hospitals(13.3%). There were 1 397 radiation workers, including 948 males and 449 females, and 459 pieces of radiation equipment, including 420 for radio diagnosis, 13 for radiotherapy, 4 for nuclear medicine, and 22 for interventional radiology. The hospitals of different grades greatly differed in the number of radiation workers and equipment. There were 80.1, 20.9, 2.2, and 2.0 radiation workers and 15.7, 5.5, 1.4, and 1.6 pieces of radiation equipment in the tertiary hospitals, secondary hospitals, primary hospitals, and ungraded hospitals, respectively on average. There were 2 903 246, 27 648, 8 087, and 17 874 receiving radiodiagnosis, radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, and interventional radiology, respectively in 2020. The medical exposure frequencies in the whole city were calculated to be 599.50 per 1 000 population, including 334.59 treated with conventional X-rays, 239.82 receiving CT scan, 14.18 for breast and dentistry, 3.62 receiving interventional radiology, 5.61 treated with radiotherapy, and 1.69 receiving nuclear medicine. Conclusions: The radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy resources are unbalanced in the hospitals of different grades in Huai'an City. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to the reasonable allocation of medical resources. Meanwhile, radiation workers in secondary hospitals may be more prone to job burnout. Facing the normalization of the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic, the supervision and management of radiological health should be strengthened to ensure the legitimacy of radiological diagnosis and radiotherapy and theoptimization of protection. The frequencies of medical exposure are consistent with the local economic level. To analyze the differences in medical exposure frequencies and predict the developmental trends in different regions, it is necessary to establish a more accurate prediction model. Copyright © 2021 by the Chinese Medical Association.