At Hospital

• Place sheet on floor, place the stretcher on sheet, unwrap the patient and cut off patient's clothing
  • Avoid shaking the material and distributing contaminated material more than necessary.
• Leave the patient’s clothing and the stretcher (this will remove at least 90% of the radioactive material in the case of surface contamination)
• Emergency Department Staff will be gowned and gloved. They will lift patient onto a clean stretcher or decontamination tabletop where they will be further decontaminated by soap and water washing.
• Officers may now need to remove their outer clothing if so instructed by a Radiation Officer and place either in a plastic bag or with stretcher and clothing.
• Stretcher, patient’s clothes, and any other possibly contaminated clothes are carefully wrapped.
• Officer and others to wash with soap and water, face first, then hands, and discard washcloths.
• Await monitor check for any residual radiation.
• Decontamination of the officer and equipment depends on the type of hazard encountered.
• Decontamination remains the responsibility of the Hazard Management Agency or Combat Agency.
• It may not be possible for Officers who have been contaminated to leave the scene.
  • (Note: Patients may have to be handed to non-affected officers and vehicles.)
• The removal of the CBR PPE should be supervised and the contaminated suit bagged as per correct disposal methods.
• Respirators, if used, should be bagged and kept separate, as these will be cleaned or destroyed.
• Decontamination of the ambulance and equipment should be carried out at the direction of the Hazard Management Agency.
• In the absence of clear instruction, the vehicle should be cleaned internally and externally with water and detergent.
  

General information about radiation

• Radiation hazards to emergency personnel is extremely small, provided some basic precautions are taken, e.g.:
  • Avoid prolonged contact of material with skin as this could (over an extended period of time) produce a significant dose
• The irradiated patient is no hazard to the attendants unless loose contaminants remain on the external surfaces
• Contamination is never a medical emergency
• The extent of radiation from an uncontrolled source cannot be guaranteed until measured by Radiation Health or the ChemCentre
• The most common radiation incident arises from the daily transportation of numerous radioactive industrial and medical materials
• The officer is protected from the radiation source by distance, a reduction of exposure time, and shielding.
  
• Surface contaminations are not life threatening, and no patient has ever died from secondary exposure to surface contamination.
• The officer is to make every possible attempt to prevent the spread of contamination to attendants, ambulance, hospital emergency facilities, etc.