Strange Socket In Hospital

[securespark]

I had a load of X-rays done yesterday.

They are very different. The machinery no longer CLUNKS and there are are no longer any physical slides, it's all electronic. But they still hide behind a screen!

As regards the 20 of that socket, it is in a corridor.

 

[JBR]

Them would probably be the plugs I've been trying to describe Any idea what they were?

Other than the specific power outlet for those particular mobile machines (and possibly suitable for other brands?), I never troubled to find out anything about rated power outlet or even voltage. I'm not sure that there are any people still alive now who were involved in their production or installation!

 

[JBR]

I had a load of X-rays done yesterday.

They are very different. The machinery no longer CLUNKS and there are are no longer any physical slides, it's all electronic. But they still hide behind a screen!

Naturally. Despite all the progress that has been made since the discovery of production of X-rays in the 19th century, X-ray radiation however it is produced and controlled is still dangerous in excess to the human body!
However, if patients are concerned about this, they should realise that they will be in receipt of X-radiation only once (or at least only a few times) in a day, whereas radiographers (and others, especially in operating theatres, etc) are likely to be presented with X-rays all day, every day! That's why we wore measuring devices and lead-rubber aprons... and of course scurried away behind a big lead-lined screen!

 

[JohnW2]

If this is located in a Treatment Ward, I would have some concern in attending any such a "Hospital".
In the very few occasions in my adult life where I have required hospital treatment,
I have never seen a Wall/Floor junction with square "corners", such as this, in any "Treatment Area",
and
I have never detected such "grime" and "poor maintenance".
I really do hope that this is just in some type of a "clinic" - as an adjunct to a hospital.

Unfortunately, there are a good few NHS hospitals in UK which are literally 'falling apart' (and only very slowly being replaced) and the money problem is so severe that patient care has to be prioritised over things like maintenance.

I don't think there is any simple answer, since healthcare is almost literally a 'bottomless pit' - such that even if one threw the country's entire GDP at it there would probably still be 'more that could be done with more money'! However, that's certainly not peculiar to the UK, and many other countries seem to have done a bit better at addressing the issue!

 

[JohnW2]

I had a load of X-rays done yesterday. They are very different. The machinery no longer CLUNKS and there are are no longer any physical slides, it's all electronic.

Indeed. As I recently wrote ....

Indeed - and, today, by the time you've managed to get back into your chair in the waiting room, a doctor in, say, Australia could already have studied the image and communicated his findings/opinion back to UK.

But they still hide behind a screen!

As has been said, with good reason. Even though the levels are very low, the staff are constantly exposed to some degree of radiation, whereas the patients only have a very brief exposure once in a blue moon. Hence, so long as we are using X-rays, the screens, lead aprons (they're mighty heavy ) and radiation badges will be there to stay.

I don't know if it will ever be technologically possible (there are few things which aren't, eventually!), and practically/financially feasible, but if we could eventually move entirely to something like MRI technology (which produces much better images), we could then forget all about X-ray radiation (and protection of staff from it).

 

[FrodoOne]

Unfortunately, there are a good few NHS hospitals in UK which are literally 'falling apart' (and only very slowly being replaced) and the money problem is so severe that patient care has to be prioritised over things like maintenance.

I don't think there is any simple answer, since healthcare is almost literally a 'bottomless pit' - such that even if one threw the country's entire GDP at it there would probably still be 'more that could be done with more money'! However, that's certainly not peculiar to the UK, and many other countries seem to have done a bit better at addressing the issue!

Thank you for your considered response.
You wrote "many other countries seem to have done a bit better at addressing the issue!"

I wonder, could you specify such "Countries" ?
I am not sure that my country of Australia would qualify!

 

[JohnW2]

Thank you for your considered response.
You wrote "many other countries seem to have done a bit better at addressing the issue!"
I wonder, could you specify such "Countries" ?
I am not sure that my country of Australia would qualify!

Good question, and maybe I was be a little over-generous in relation to many 'other countries'!

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that many European countries were doing a bit better than us - but I must say that I would probably have said the same of Australia (and Canada etc.)

However, it is difficult to see why things should differ a lot between 'Western' countries (including Australia - which I suppose is 'west' of NZ ), unless simply due to political/organisation/whatever incompetence - since the problems will be much the same everywhere, and most of those countries are probably in the same sort of 'economic ballpark'.

Kind Regards, John

 

[pete01]

OMG...its a sign that used to be above two sockets....

 

[darreng1983]

Thanks for confirming. Although my direct knowledge dates from times gone by, my understanding of the presentday situation is as I described at the start of this discussion, when I wrote:


However, what about modern portable image intensifiers, which is what most of my (now very dusty!) personal experience related to? Since they can be required to generate X-rays continuously for quite long periods of time, rather than for just a very brief exposure, I would imagine that they would be hard-pressed to work for long off internal batteries?

Kind Regards, John

Hi John,

Yup, spot on, the mobile image intensifiers have to be plugged in. Well ours do anyway

I wish I had been about in the "olden" days to have experienced the older equipment

 

[darreng1983]

I was, in the olden days. Our mobiles (some called them portable, but I'm damned if I could pick one up!), were 'Deans', great solid things, had enormous circular three pin plugs which had to be plugged in for the things to work. Later during my tenure, we received a couple of more modern ones (white rather than the grey metallic colour) called 'AMX', which as someone has already mentioned were powered by built-in batteries and capacitors for exposures, though needed to plug in a small, modern 3-pin plug to charge up between uses. There were also a couple of absolutely ancient machines which didn't even have light-beam collimators, so it was occasionally possible to fail to include all the area of interest, receiving a consequent *******ing.
Ah, those were the days!

Ah awesome

We had a fleet of fairly ancient GE AMX4s that only got retired at the beginning of covid. They were absolute tanks and totally bulletproof, unlike the newfangled all singing all dancing models!

 

[JohnW2]

Hi John, Yup, spot on, the mobile image intensifiers have to be plugged in. Well ours do anyway

Thanks for confirming - but can the modern ones just be plugged in to a standard13A outlet, or do they still have the massive cables and plugs we've been discussing here (I somewhat doubt that they do).

I wish I had been about in the "olden" days to have experienced the older equipment

As with many matters of nostalgia, you might say a little different if you had been there As you say in a subsequent message, the machines oif old were built like (and looked a bit like!) tanks. Furthermore, they were not all that reliable and I suspect probably much more power-hungry than modern machines - and quite possibly leaking X-rays all over the place! I think they probably did have quite large batteries in them, not to power the equipment but, rather, the motors which enabled them to move around, since I think they were probably far too heavy to be moved very far 'manually'.

As for the mobile image intensifiers, I seem to recall that some of them could also 'overheat' quite quickly, after just a small number of minutes of screening. In fact, because of the combination of that and 'reliability' issues, some of the radiographers back then were not very happy for a procedure to start until they had got two machines in proximity to the patient!

Kind Regards, John

 

[JBR]

I wish I had been about in the "olden" days to have experienced the older equipment

I bet you wouldn't. The (very) ancient 'gas tubes' required being run for several minutes in order to produce an X-ray image (on film).
I found the way they worked to be very interesting and educational.
Of course, that was donkey's years before my time.

 

[JBR]

Thanks for confirming - but can the modern ones just be plugged in to a standard13A outlet, or do they still have the massive cables and plugs we've been discussing here (I somewhat doubt that they do).

As for the mobile image intensifiers, I seem to recall that some of them could also 'overheat' quite quickly, after just a small number of minutes of screening.

The screening units I have used in the theatres plugged into normal 13A outlets.
As for screening, I remember only using occasional short bursts, efficient only for the surgeon to see exactly where he was. After all it was him, as well as the rest of us, who was being irradiated. In fact, he would have been closer to the source of radiation than the rest of us!

 

[JohnW2]

The screening units I have used in the theatres plugged into normal 13A outlets.

Are you talking 'now', or 'back then' ?

As for screening, I remember only using occasional short bursts, efficient only for the surgeon to see exactly where he was. After all it was him, as well as the rest of us, who was being irradiated. In fact, he would have been closer to the source of radiation than the rest of us!

What you describe is obviously the ideal, and how it very often is. However, I was thinking/talking mainly about manipulation of pacing wires within the heart. As you imply, it very often only required a fairly small number of seconds of screening, in short bursts, to get that done. However, sometimes the wires were stubbornly reluctant to go where one wanted them to go, so one had to do a lot of 'fiddling about', under more-or-less continuous screening.

I can't remember whether the machines told them this, or whether they had some sort of 'stop watch', but the radiographers were constantly aware of the accumulated amount of screening time, frequently updated us on that amount, and started becoming increasingly 'concerned' if/when the total got to more than a minute or two.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

What you describe is obviously the ideal, and how it very often is. However, I was thinking/talking mainly about manipulation of pacing wires within the heart. As you imply, it very often only required a fairly small number of seconds of screening, in short bursts, to get that done. However, sometimes the wires were stubbornly reluctant to go where one wanted them to go, so one had to do a lot of 'fiddling about', under more-or-less continuous screening.

I can't remember whether the machines told them this, or whether they had some sort of 'stop watch', but the radiographers were constantly aware of the accumulated amount of screening time, frequently updated us on that amount, and started becoming increasingly 'concerned' if/when the total got to more than a minute or two.

A few years back I had a kidney stent fitted, via my groin. A group of people in attendance, none wearing anything special by way of protection, and watching the progress of the stent insertion on screens. I wondered at the time, and since, quite what system they were using to view the progress of the stent along my artery. Some undergoing similar, have reported been able to actually see the screen, and progress themselves.

Would that be X-rays? I was laid on an operating table, which seemed to be inflated, and warmed, maybe with water.