Docs thwarting RP Rules' implementation

BY VL Srinivasan
Hyderabad, March 29: Three years after assuring the Supreme Court to establish a Directorate of Radiation Safety (DRS) for implementation of Radiation Protection (RP) Rules, the Andhra Pradesh Government is yet to fulfil the same due to pressure from a section of doctors in the State.
The State Government gave the assurance in the form of an affidavit after a public interest litigation was filed by one JP Sarma, a resident of Delhi, urging the apex court to direct the Centre and the States to implement the
RP Rules to protect thousands of technicians working on these machines in the country.
Headed by a Radiation Safety Officer (RSO), the DRS would be a statutory body that would regulate the functioning of the X-ray, CT and MRI units in Government and private hospitals by giving them licences as per the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act.
Several States including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Rajasthan and Gujarat have already set up the DRS but it did not fructify in Andhra Pradesh as the doctors are opposing the move as it would rob them of the privilege of controlling these units in both, government and private hospitals.
``No doctor can recommend the patients to undergo X-rays, CT or MRI scans without filing proper requisition forms and also along with clinical findings once the DRS is constituted,'' official sources told Express.
According to them, the State Government constituted a six-member official committee on November 11, 2004 which was headed by Principal Secretary (Medical & Health) and Director of Medical Education (DME) as the member convenor.
The committee was asked to study the various factors for implementation of RP Rules for medical diagnostic X-ray installations in the State and also establishment of the DRS and submit its report within a month.
After repeated reminders, the DME, in a letter in January 2006, said that 15 posts of Radiation Physicists in the teaching hospitals including at Tirupati, Guntur, Kurnool, MNJ Institute of Oncology, Siddhartha medical
College, Vijayawada, Anantapur and Osmania and Gandhi hospitals in the city are lying vacant.
These posts should be filled for getting permission from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) to run the Tele Cobalt Units for treating cancer patients. ``Further, no institute can run radiation treatment or operate Radiation Therapy equipment until an RSO is appointed,'' he said.
AP Government X-ray Technicians' Association president Garapati Wisdom Chowdhary, wondered why the hospitals were reluctant to abide by the RP Rules when other departments like Mines and Geology, which were covered by the Atomic Energy Act, followed them scrupulously.
The hazards of radiation are so severe that it may lead to fall in sperm count, expose the technicians to the risks of several forms of cancers, he said.