Diagnostic X‐rays are performed to diagnose medical conditions such as damage to the skeletal structures and organ dysfunction, for example chest X‐rays for respiratory complications.

IR(ME)R prohibits any medical exposure from being carried out that has not been justified and authorized, and provides an optimization process to ensure that doses arising from exposures are kept ‘as low as reasonably practicable’ (ALARP), consistent with the diagnostic task.

It is also necessary to be aware of the Protection of Pregnant Patients during Diagnostic Medical Exposures to Ionizing Radiation guidelines, issued by the Royal College of Radiologists, the Health Protection Agency and the College of Radiographers ([213]). For women known or likely to be pregnant, where the examination has been justified on the basis of clinical urgency and involves irradiation of the abdomen, operators must optimize the technique to minimize irradiation of the foetus. Radiography of areas remote from the foetus, for example the chest, skull or hand, may be carried out safely at any time during pregnancy as long as good beam collimation and proper shielding equipment are used.