• diagnose disease states, such as cancer or heart disease
• show if there is injury to body structures
• provide images of organs to help other specialists repair problems e.g. angiography of the heart.

• Medical Radiation Technologists (MRTs) or Radiographers perform your X-ray, barium and mammography examinations.
• Sonographers are MRTs who perform your ultrasound examinations.
• Radiologists are specialist doctors who read and understand your films. They will also be involved if you have an intravenous urogram (IVU), barium study, mammogram and a number of other ultrasound procedures.  They interpret the results of the images and send them to your doctor.

How Safe is Radiology?
Some forms of radiology use sound waves, some use x-rays and some use magnetic fields. One form of radiology uses tiny amounts of radioactive materials injected into the body.

The sound waves (ultrasound) and the magnetic fields (MRI scan), as far as we know, have no harmful effects. The other two types use what is known as ionising radiation. Ionising radiation is known to cause cancer if the dose is high or the exposure is prolonged or repeated many times. The amount of this radiation from a plain chest x-ray for example is quite small and the adverse health effects are immeasurable when compared with the level of background radiation that all humans living on this planet get from the sun and the ground (radon). However, other x-ray examinations such as lumbar spine x-rays and CT scans use much higher doses of radiation and these exams need to be performed with care and infrequently. If you want to read more about the risks and the benefits of CT scans click here http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2007/11/28/the-doctor-says-get-a-ct-scan-should-you.html?PageNr=2

You must be assessed by your GP before you can be referred to the Radiology Department at the Auckland DHB (Greenlane and Starship sites). As there is only a certain amount of money and a limited number of specialists working at the hospital, it is not possible for the Radiology Department to see every patient who is referred.

There are currently more requests for appointments than we have the capacity to see. All requests for x-rays and ultrasound and other examinations are read by a doctor and a priority rating is attached to the referral. The most urgent cases get seen first and more routine cases will wait longer. Referrals where a requested imaging exam has little chance of contributing to the diagnosis will not be done at all. In this later case, the referring doctor will receive a letter  suggesting an alternative (better) pathway to advance the diagnosis in that patient.

Radiology does have a role to play in providing reassurance that a particular disease is not present. However, where the chance of a patient having that disease is very small, this role for radiology must take second place to the diagnostic role in the public hospital, where resources are very limited. The private sector radiology service has the capacity provide the reassurance role for a fee.

Once the referral from your general practitioner is accepted by us we will write to you giving you an appointment time and date. These appointments are scarce.  If you do receive one, please turn up on the day because, if you do not turn up, you will deprive another patient of this valuable appointment.

When you come please bring with you:

If you have an urgent orthopaedic condition such as a fracture or a bone infection, your doctor will send you to the Emergency Department at Auckland City Hospital and the doctors there will arrange x-rays or scans on the same day.

If you have a condition that was caused by an accident, you can get x-rays and scans done in the private sector and most of this cost will be paid for by the Accident Compensation Corporation. You will often receive swifter attention under the cover of the Accident Compensation Corporation in the private sector.