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A typical shift

Eight or 12 hours. In X-ray you move between the emergency department, the wards with a portable machine, and the main room, positioning a broken wrist one minute and a chest X-ray on a ventilated patient in the ICU (intensive care unit) the next. In CT (computed tomography) you scan strokes and trauma against the clock. Radiation therapists see the same cancer patients every weekday for weeks, lining them up to the millimetre and delivering a planned dose.