| A hospital employee also alleged lives could be put a risk by a shortage of radiographers on duty, but this was denied by a spokesman for NHS Tayside.
The staff member, who declined to be named, told the Tele the clinical radiology department faces a Saturday late shift with just one radiographer instead of the usual four.
Hospital managers were accused of not doing enough to deal with a long-standing recruitment issue, which has led to the point where a major accident on local roads late on Saturday would be “a serious problem”.
The employee said, “There is a crisis in the x-ray department, and on Saturday night there will only be one radiographer on to cover Ninewells. Normally there would be four. Staffing levels are getting dangerously low, and although this has been covered by goodwill and overtime up to now, people just can’t do any more.
“Saturday is going to be a major problem. Normally we cover the theatres, all the ward work and accident and emergency, but one person could maybe cover A&E and that’s it.
“The ward work can be rescheduled, but we do a lot of emergency chest x-rays and things like that where they need an answer quickly, so it could be life-threatening.
“A major road accident in the area would be a serious problem.”
The insider said that the radiographers, who take x-rays, were “getting very tired” of the situation, and were not prepared to cover the shortfall on Saturday night as they had on previous occasions when only one had been on the rota.
“The problem is recruitment. There is a national shortage of radiographers, but Ninewells haven’t got their heads round the fact that in the other hospitals, in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh, the radiographers have the potential to earn more because of shift allowances and the way they work.
“There will be a lot of students graduating in June, and if they don’t address the money side of things they are not going to recruit any.”
The NHS Tayside spokesman said efforts were being made to address the staffing shortage, and gave an assurance that the short-term situation would not threaten patient safety.
“The national, regional and local shortage of radiographers has been an issue we have been trying to address for some time,” he said.
“That situation has been compounded this weekend by staff sickness, but the people in Tayside can be reassured we will continue to provide a safe, quality service to them.
“For some time now, plans have been discussed in Tayside to re-establish a radiographer training school. This is continuing to be explored.”
He added it was hoped an ongoing exercise, looking at pay and rewards for radiographers in Tayside, would be concluded soon. |
