On the 8th of November, the world celebrated International Day of Radiology, an annual event aimed at raising awareness of the growing value and important role that radiology plays in the effective contribution to providing safe health care to patients, as well as improving understanding of the vital role that radiology physicians and technologists play in the radiology continuum of care while demonstrating the high educational and professional standards required of all medical imaging professionals.

What PHCC is doing through its Radiology Department is a vivid example of the important role of radiology. PHCC provides many radiology services in all its health centers, such as regular radiology services in its health centers, such as ultrasound services for women and pregnant women, abdominal and pelvic ultrasound services, and dental panoramic radiography.

Health centers provide regular x-ray examinations for all patients once they arrive to the Radiology Department. The patient must obtain a request for x-rays from the attending physician, except for some tests that require the patient to undergo a special preparation, and these are done directly after making the necessary procedures.
Ultrasound examinations need to be requested by the attending physician and are done based on a prior appointment, either from the reception or customer service by dialing 107, and patients are reminded of their appointments and given the necessary instructions via SMS, if any.

The medical staff in the radiology departments are diverse; they include radiologists, technologists, radiology technicians and ultrasound technicians. In addition to the Radiology Department's endeavor to use the latest technologies to ensure the highest level of quality for all patients, by providing the latest radiology x-ray equipment and advanced ultrasound devices. Further, it connects all devices with an advanced system for transferring and saving medical images in a manner that allows the radiologist to examine the images from any health center and write the necessary reports.

The attending physician can also view images and reports from any health center in which he is located. The radiology system is also linked between health centers and between other health institutions, such as Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the Medical Commission, and Sidra Medicine, to save physicians’ time and effort.

The Radiology Department works to fasten the process of issuing accurate and high-quality radiology reports, where the maximum time needed to issue radiology reports to patients is as follows:
• Ordinary, non-urgent examinations: the report is issued within a maximum of 24 hours.
• Urgent examinations: the report is issued within a maximum of two hours.
• Very urgent cases: the report is issued within a maximum of 20 minutes.

To ensure the overall quality in the Radiology Department, PHCC has specified many policies and standards that ensure the existence of a unified system compatible with the latest international systems to provide optimal levels of safety in diagnostic imaging services, and to meet all accreditation requirements in providing radiology service, such as ensuring the quality of all radiology equipment in health centers and performing regular checks of these devices along with the required periodic maintenance as well as licensing, registration and record keeping procedures. The Radiology Department aims to ensure the highest levels of patient safety, reduce risks, enhance patient care, and maintain patients’ trust through accurate diagnosis and efficient services.

Ensuring safety from ionizing radiation is paramount. This protection is based on the basic principles, which is the existence of a justification for x-ray examination and the use of the minimum dose of radiation required to provide diagnostic information, taking into account the permissible limit of exposure to radiation.

PHCC has a special department for radiation safety. It is responsible for protecting health centers’ employees and visitors from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation and ensuring adherence to international guidelines and standards on radiation safety.