• Inadequate clinical information was noted in 1/3 of acute CT abdominal requests. Examples are shown in figure 2.

• Clinical impression in the notes correlated with request information in 63%, however, ¼ requests were essentially ‘excludograms’.

• Suspected clinical diagnosis on request cards did not correlate with CT findings in >50%. 

• There was an appropriate level of referrer in the majority of case

             >60% (45 cases) – the decision to order the CT was made by a                         surgical consultant or specialist registrar(figure 3)

• In those undergoing  surgery (22 / 73 patients),>90% of CT findings correlated with surgical findings. Operation notes were present in 73%.