Medical Physics
History of the service
The Medical Physics Department was established at Dorset County Hospital in 1982 with the appointment of Dr Joe Aindow. In 1985 Peter Robins joined the service, followed in 1989 by Jonathan Fowler, who filled a newly created technician post (Clinical Technologist).
1996 saw Mike Lunt join the department while Joe took a sabbatical year as director of an ultrasound technology company. Mike remained on a part-time basis providing weekly vascular scanning sessions and as a research scientist until his retirement in 2007. Joe retired in 2012, and Peter then took over as Head of the Department.
In 2013, Kate Rowe joined Medical Physics as a Clinical Technologist, having already worked at the hospital for over 10 years as a Diagnostic Radiographer. Sophie Murphy (nee McCaffrey) then joined in 2016, also as a Clinical Technologist.
In 2020, Peter retired and was replaced as Head of Department by Jim Thurston.
The department is now beginning a programme of development to be able to meet the increasing demands placed on it, including by the opening of South Walks House, the expansion and transfer of some services to Weymouth Community Hospital, and the project to build expanded emergency and acute care services on the DCH site through the New Hospital Programme, due to open in 2027. We have recently recruited to two new permanent posts, with Corinne Vaughan starting as our Support Officer (admin and clerical), and Molly Falconer starting as a Clinical Technologist. It is hoped that three more new posts will be established in 2025 and 2026.
Regional networking
From the beginning, the Medical Physics Department has collaborated with other departments in the South West, including those at the Royal United Hospital (Bath), Great Western Hospital (Swindon), Odstock Hospital (now Salisbury General Hospital), Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (Bath) and the Bath Institute of Medical Engineering.
More recently a network has been established across the wider South West and South of England Regions, from Cornwall in the west to Gloucester in the north, and Portsmouth in the east, with groups meeting several times a year to focus radiation protection, diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, and non-ionising radiations.
The department at Dorset County Hospital also collaborates closely with our colleagues at University Hospitals Dorset (based at Poole Hospital), forming a One Dorset Medical Physics Group to provide a consistent approach to the delivery of medical physics support for all hospitals including local community hospitals across the county.
Currently, the Medical Physics Department provides support in the following areas to the work of the hospital here:
Radiation safety and quality control
The department advises the hospital on all issues of radiation safety affecting staff, patients or the public from the work carried out in the hospital. These areas currently include:
- Ionising radiation - X-rays
- Non-ionising radiation - lasers, ultraviolet, ultrasound, and magnetic fields
which are widely used in medicine, either diagnostically or therapeutically. In all cases there are nationally accepted guidelines in place to ensure their safe use and, especially in the case of ionising radiation, complex and detailed legal requirements that have to be met. A comprehensive library of safety standards is held by the department, together with relevant legal documentation.
A full range of instrumentation is available to the department to allow the detection and measurement of all the above energies. These instruments are calibrated through traceable means, to UK national standards.
Audiology
The Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust Audiology Service, based at the Weymouth Community Hospital as well as at Dorset County Hospital, uses audiological equipment such as audiometers and tympanometers to carry out hearing assessments on adults and children. The service follows this up by providing hearing aid fittings, along with aftercare, tinnitus counselling and balance assessments.
The Medical Physics Department supports audiology by providing a calibration and basic repair service to the range of audiological equipment used, working with the service to ensure that patient clinics run as much as possible to a full schedule. The audiometry test equipment we use is itself regularly calibrated and traceable to UK National standards.
Outpatient Nebuliser Service
Nebulisers are used to deliver a range of brocho-dilatory, antibiotic and steroid medications into the lungs for a range of clinical conditions.
Medical physics provides an outpatient nebuliser service for these medications prescribed by the Respiratory Medicine Department. Nebulisers are issued to patients, who then return them for exchange on an annual basis so that the devices can be tested and serviced.
We also have some nebulisers for short term loan so that patients can take one on holiday with them. They are more compact and portable, and come complete with a carry case, multi voltage mains adapter and car power lead. If you require the use of one of these, please contact us in plenty of time before you leave on holiday.
Management of medical gases, scales and other equipment (in collaboration with the Clinical Engineering Department)
Dorset County Hospital has an inventory of in excess of 9,500 medical devices, from simple weighing scales and blood pressure monitors, through to medical gases flowmeters, suction units and electronically controlled infusion pumps, and on to more complex and sophisticated equipment such as patient ventilators and other critical life-support equipment, and CT and MRI scanners.
Medical physics and our colleagues in clinical engineering support the clinical services in the hospital to procure the best, safest and most appropriate equipment, to commission it (i.e. testing it is safe) before clinical use. We then ensure that these devices are subject to regular servicing and quality assurance procedures to ensure optimised performance. Eventually, medical devices can no longer function in an optimised or safe way, and medical physics and clinical engineering will advise again on replacement with the latest and most appropriate alternatives available.
Occasionally the Trust receives Hazard Notices (issued through or by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - MHRA), that detail safety issues encountered with a particular medical device and require action to be taken to ensure that no patient comes to harm. Medical physics and clinical engineering together ensure that the Trust responds appropriately to all such notices.
Medical device design/adaption
From time-to-time the department is requested to undertake the development of medical devices on a one-off basis, whether it be adaptation of an existing device or designing one from scratch.
We are able to offer a wide range of design skills in electronics and mechanical engineering producing equipment compliant with the latest medical safety guidelines.
Research and development
From the foundation of the department in 1982, the medical physics have collaborated with our medical colleagues on a wide variety of research projects. Over the years the topics have varied in discipline from diagnostic ultrasound and radiology to surgery and psychology.
To this day we continue to support medical research across the hospital, whether it is by reviewing patient safety aspects of research ethics applications, advising on the use of new medical devices on trial, or the clinical implementation of AI technology to assist in medical diagnosis.
Useful links
Please find below a list of links to websites which will give further information, including about starting a career in healthcare science and specifically medical physics:
Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine - Getting started on a career in MPCE - IPEM
NHS Health Careers - Healthcare science | Health Careers
Our Dorset - Healthcare science – Join Our Dorset
Society for Radiological Protection - Career Information - The Society for Radiological Protection - SRP