Radiology services manager Anne McLucas has been at the heart of Harefield hospital for a quarter of a century.

She has seen the hospital change from a TB sanatorium to the world renowned heart transplant centre it is today.

"When I came here they had not started doing the transplants and we were a district general hospital in some respects.

"I came in 1978 and at that time we were still doing general surgery and had a children's ward, plus a paediatric intensive care ward.

Chest

"We admitted a variety of conditions and were a TB hospital so we were sent some of the TB cases which came into Heathrow."

During the years Anne has seen thousands of people pass through the doors of the famous hospital, including a number of celebrities, but two in particular stick in her mind.

Most places are finding it very difficult to recruit Anne McLucas

"Actor Omar Sharif was in here as a patient, he had a by-pass and had to have an X-ray.

"He was a lovely charming gentleman with olde world charm.

"Comedian Eric Morecambe was here too and he was wonderful.

"You could not get him to do anything without him cracking jokes, he just adlibbed all the time.

"He was a dream he was one of my favourite people anyway and I X-rayed him a few times."

Anne also saw Princess Diana a few times in the early 90's when she visited Magdi Yacoub.

Because Harefield is a specialised heart hospital the staff mainly do chest X-rays, although they will get requests for other types of X-rays as well from the GPs based in the hospital grounds.

Cases

X-rays can range from the routine to stabbings and shootings in the chest.

"We had one patient who had a bullet lodged behind his heart.

It was not possible to remove it at that time, so he was returned to the hospital he had been referred from, with it still in his body until the tissue grew round it."

Staff in the department are issued with special badges, which they wear at all times in the department.

These calculate how much radiology they have had and ensure no-one receives too much.

These badges are sent to the physics department at the Royal Marsden Hospital for assessment once a month.

"Radiation is accumulative, " she said.

Radiographers will wear a lead coat when they are taking an X-ray or stand behind a lead glass screen.

There is also nuclear medicine where the patient is first injected with a radioactive substance before scanning.

Staff

But Anne says that one of the major problems today is getting enough qualified staff to keep the busy department running, because there is a national shortage of radiographers.

"Most places are finding it very difficult to recruit. It is a three-year degree course.

"But some qualifying students do their degree and then find employment outside radiography because it pays better."

They will also have assistant practitioners who come straight there and are trained on the job and can then take a diploma in radiography.

"They are doing a lot to encourage people to come into radiography.

"But I am a qualified radiographer so I can still turn my hand if we are short staffed."