Materials and method
This was a retrospective review of chest radiograph referrals for
NG tube location within a single NHS Trust. The trust comprises
three district general hospital sites with a total of 1227 beds and
provides limited tertiary health services. In line with the NPSA alert,
local NG tube guidelines are in place and radiographs should be
obtained if pH testing is equivocal or fails. Other than critical care
settings insertion should only take place between 08:00 and 20:00
with an image acquisition target of one hour and mandatory radiology
reporting as soon as possible. At the time of the study the
trust employed 24 consultant radiologists, rotating specialist
trainees and three radiographers whose scope included reporting
of visceral examinations. Voice recognition (VR) and/or digital
dictation was available for report transcription and NPSA compliant
standard report templates were in place for NG tube reporting and
advocated in the trust guidelines.