Assessment of patients X-ray doses at three government hospitals in Duhok city lacking requirements of effective quality control

s: Significant variations between exposure factors recorded in this study and those recommended in the context of quality criteria and standards were shown. The results have also shown that about twenty percent of the patient doses (ESD and E) were equal or below the recommended values of the diagnostic reference levels (DRLs). For abdomen, pelvis and skull examinations, the ESD values were slightly above the diagnostic reference levels. For chest and cervical the ESD values were much higher than diagnostic reference levels. These values were more reasonable only in one hospital. High ESD values can be attributed to the slightly higher tube voltages and lower mAs values that were used. The high patient dose values suggest that any adequate change of the exposure parameters that aims at the reduction of dose must be done without compromising the image quality. This study recommends a quick action toward implementing a quality control program and employing special staff of medical physicists in the evaluated hospitals.