Emergency and Trauma Imaging

The Emergency Department  X-Ray service is located within the Emergency Department on Level B.

For certain examinations, you may have to go to a different area of the hospital, but you will always be escorted by a member of staff.

Radiographers will take your x-rays.

Student radiographers may also be present and take your x-rays under the supervision of a radiographer.

Porters may help move you to the x-ray rooms.

Generally no preparation is required, however you must have an X-Ray request form filled out and signed by your doctor before you come to the department.

Legally, we cannot X-Ray you without this documentation. There may be occasions when this information has already been sent to the department.

You may be required to get changed into a hospital gown for your X-Ray; the Emergency Department staff will organise this for you before sending you for X-Rays. The radiographers may send you back to the Emergency Department to change if necessary.

If you do not wish to change, ensure that you are wearing loose clothing with no metal on. Items of jewellery may also need to be removed.

The radiographer, or student, will call you in for your X-Ray. They will formally identify you and the body part you are expecting to be X-Rayed. This is classed as obtaining your verbal consent for the X-Rays to take place.

The radiographer will need to position you for your X-Rays which can sometimes be a little tricky, but we will adapt our technique if you find you can’t move how we’d like you to.

This depends upon how many X-Rays your doctor has requested. Most body parts take roughly 5-10 minutes each.

Unfortunately due to the busy nature of our service your waiting time may be a while, especially after 17:00 and before 08:30 as the staff numbers supplying the service are smaller.

As we are using radiation, we like to keep the number of people in the X-Ray rooms to an absolute minimum. If having a chaperone in the room will aid the staff in obtaining better quality diagnostic images, the radiographer may agree to having one present.

Depending on the level of assistance required, the chaperone will stand behind the lead screen or put on a lead apron and stay with you.

It should be noted that expectant mothers are not permitted to stay in with a child, and also siblings may not accompany a chaperoning parent into the X-Ray room. If there is no other carer available and they cannot be left on their own, we will organise for a staff member to sit with them.

The radiographers are not permitted to tell you the results of your imaging. You will get these from your referrer when you see them back in the Emergency Department.