Shimelis Dagmawit, Atnafu Asfaw
Department of Radiology, Axum Hospital, Axum, [corrected] Ethiopia.
Ethiop Med J. 2011 Jul;49(3):257-63.
The availability and quality of radiological service in the developing countries are generally poor. Ethiopia is one of the countries where overall health service has been compromised by inadequate & poorly maintained infrastructure and scarcity of health professionals. Radiological service is a resource intensive unit in a hospital and most developing countries radiological service is expected to be poor or may not be available at all. However, there is no study conducted to assess the radiological service in Ethiopia.
The aim of the study is to assess the status of radiological service in all public hospitals in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, and to render insight to the overall national service status.
A cross sectional survey was conducted from Aug 2008 to Oct 2009 G C in all twelve public hospitals in Addis Ababa, including specialized and military hospitals. Self administered pre-tested questioners were used to collect data from key informants, chief radiographers and radiologist. In addition, departmental daily work record book was used to extract the type of radiological examination performed Data analysis was done manually.
All hospitals in the study provide a basic level of radiological services. Plain x-ray and ultrasound is the type of service (100%) available, whereas services like mammography (9%), CT scan (18%) and MRI (0%) were found to be the least available. There are a total of 78 radiographers and 20 radiologists in Addis Ababa public hospitals with no radiologist in three. The average number of examinations performed in a year amounts to 113,204 and US and routine x-ray examinations account for nearly 98% of the service offered The study showed 25% of the radiological equipments are non-functional and no appropriately trained dark room technicians & no maintenance staffpresent in all hospitals
This study verifies the poor radiological infrastructure, poor level of support and the basic nature of the radiological service in the capital. We believe this finding can be used as an indirect indicator of the possible worse scenario in the regional and peripheral hospitals. Therefore a nation- wide survey & plannedgovernment intervention is recommended to improve the radiological service.
发展中国家放射服务的可及性和质量普遍较差。埃塞俄比亚是一个整体卫生服务因基础设施不足、维护不善以及卫生专业人员短缺而受到影响的国家。放射服务是医院中资源密集型科室，大多数发展中国家的放射服务预计较差，甚至可能根本没有。然而，尚未有研究对埃塞俄比亚的放射服务进行评估。
本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴所有公立医院的放射服务状况，并深入了解全国的整体服务状况。
在2008年8月至2009年10月期间，对亚的斯亚贝巴的所有12家公立医院进行了横断面调查，包括专科医院和军队医院。使用自行管理的经过预测试的问卷从关键信息提供者、首席放射技师和放射科医生那里收集数据。此外，还使用科室日常工作记录本来提取所进行的放射检查类型。数据分析采用手工方式。
研究中的所有医院都提供基本水平的放射服务。普通X光和超声检查是所有医院都提供的服务类型（100%），而乳房X光摄影（9%）、CT扫描（18%）和MRI（0%）等服务的可及性最低。亚的斯亚贝巴公立医院共有78名放射技师和20名放射科医生，其中三家医院没有放射科医生。每年进行的检查平均数量为113,204次，X光检查和常规X光检查占所提供服务的近98%。研究表明，25%的放射设备无法正常运行，所有医院都没有经过适当培训的暗室技术人员，也没有维修人员。
本研究证实了首都放射基础设施差、支持水平低以及放射服务的基本性质。我们认为这一发现可作为区域和周边医院可能更糟糕情况的间接指标。因此，建议进行全国范围的调查并由政府进行有计划的干预，以改善放射服务。
