A COMPANY has been fined heavily after staff at a local hospital, not knowingly wearing the correct equipment, were contaminated by high levels of radiation. 

On March 25, 2019, a vial of a radioactive substance (FDG) leaked after it was installed into a shielded dispensing pot in the dispensing laboratory of Alliance Medical Limited’s (AML) Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) facility at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds.

This resulted in two members of staff becoming contaminated with skin doses in excess of the annual dose limit as defined by the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident at the AML Leeds PET-CT centre found that training and instruction was inadequate and supervision below an acceptable standard.

Staff were not made fully aware of the localised instructions and were using personal protective equipment (PPE) unsuitable for work with radioactive material.

In a second incident, on November 15, 2019, the same radioactive substance was unknowingly handled during the production process at the Alliance Medical Radiopharmacy Limited (AMRL) facility at Keele University Science Park in Staffordshire.

Consequently, a member of staff was contaminated with a skin dose in excess of the annual dose limit as defined by the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017.

Alliance Medical Limited, based at Iceni Centre, Warwick Technology Park, Warwick, pleaded guilty to breaches of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017, Regulations 12, 18(3), 18(4) and 18(5)a, and was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £11,382 at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on September 29.

Its radiopharmaceutical subsidiary company Alliance Medical Radiopharmacy Limited, also based in the same place, pleaded guilty to breaches of the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017, Regulations 9(2)a, 11(1) and 12, and was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay costs of £11,382 in the same court on the same date.

After the hearing, HSE specialist inspector Elizabeth Reeves said: “The workers in both these incidents were exposed to levels of radiation which could potentially impact their health in the future.

“Employers in the nuclear medicine sector must properly assess the risks to their employees and others and ensure all radiation doses are as low as reasonably practicable.

“Both these incidents could so easily have been avoided by simply carrying out the correct control measures and ensuring safe working practices were followed.

"Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement actions against those that fall below the required standards.”