GENERAL RADIOGRAPHY

No appointments are necessary for this category of examination.

Please bring along the letter or request form from a physician requesting for the particular examination.

Also, for easy identification, bring along your identity card or passport. This will also assist to expedite the registration process.

For follow-up cases, it is necessary to have previous x-ray films in order for the radiologist to compare and report on the progress of the condition.

No preparation is required. At the clinic, you may be asked to change into an x-ray gown and to remove jewellery or ornaments which may obscure the region that is being x-rayed.

Female patients will be asked to certify that they are not pregnant. If there is any possibility of pregnancy, this should be brought to the attention of the physician or radiographer or nurse attending to you.

The radiographer positions the patient as required by the physician's request. Patient may be asked to lie on the examination table or stand in front of a cold plate. Sandbags and positioning pads may be used to assist the patient to keep in the required position. The radiographer will ask the patient to keep still in that position and in some cases forewarn the patient that he/she will be asked to hold his/her breath during the exposure. The radiographer will then walk to an adjacent room when the controls of the equipment are and ask the patient to hold his breath or keep still. The x-rays are activated, sending x-rays through the body part. This procedure may be repeated if more views or regions are required.

The x-ray examination is not painful. But as in photograph taking, any movement during exposure will render the image unclear. Thus patient may be asked to stop breathing and moving for the duration of the exposure which is a few seconds.

Actual procedural time will depend on the number, views of region x-rayed. It may therefore range from about 1 minute to 20 minutes.

After the procedure, patient will be asked to wait while the x-ray is being processed and checked to be in order. This may take another 10 minutes.

Therefore please allow about 30 minutes for the entire process.

After the x-ray has been processed, the radiologist will report on his/her findings. For urgent requests, the results will be ready for collection in an hour's time after the completion of the examination, at the clinic. For routine cases, the results will be despatched to the referring physician's clinic. Please let us know when your next visit to the doctor is. We will ensure that it is despatched before your next appointment.