National procedures for clinical audit of radiological procedures involving medical exposure to ionising radiation

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published National procedures for clinical audit of radiological procedures involving medical exposure to ionising radiation.

Since October 2022, through an amendment to the European Union (Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Dangers Arising from Medical Exposure to Ionising Radiation) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 256 of 2018), HIQA has responsibility for establishing national procedures for clinical audit of radiological procedures involving medical exposure to ionising radiation in Ireland.

In this context, clinical audit is an important tool for undertakings (service providers that offer medical exposures to ionsing radiation, such as X-rays) to support the review of medical radiological procedures against an agreed standard and to identify improvements where necessary.

John Tuffy, HIQA’s Head of Healthcare Regulation, said: “The goal of clinical audit is to ensure that healthcare and dental services that provide medical exposures are continually improving their service. Services that actively engage in clinical audit demonstrate a greater assurance to people using these services that quality improvement is at the forefront of service delivery.”

Agnella Craig, HIQA’s Regional Manager for Ionising Radiation, said: “These national procedures set out the principles and essential criteria that services must follow to ensure compliance with the requirements of the regulations”.

The national procedures document can be found on HIQA’s website at www.hiqa.ie.

An online information session on the national procedures and what it means for undertakings and staff is scheduled for Thursday 14 December from 2– 3pm. Further details on registering for this webinar are available here (the link is best accessed via the web browsers Chrome and Firefox).

The document can be access here.