THE USE OF CT SCANNING BY ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS IN THE UK - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

To determine the access to and use of computed tomography (CT) scannin g by Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments a questionnaire was sent to all major A&E departments in the UK. Although CT scanners were pre sent in over 80 per cent of the 225 responding hospitals, many centres (including 15.8 per cent of those with a CT scanner on site) did not have 24 h scanning facilities for emergency cases. Few departments (26 per cent) have agreed protocols with their radiology departments with regard to CT scanning and some departments transferred cases for emer gency CT scans at another hospital. There are deficiencies in access t o CT scanning in a significant number of hospitals. This results in so me patients undergoing hazardous and in our view unnecessary transfer for scanning. Little we is made of agreed protocols between A&E and Ra diology departments to simplify and speed tip the process of arranging CT scans. We feel that the deficiencies identified need to be address ed particularly in the assessment of head injury.