Equipment in the room should be kept to a minimum. It must be checked to ensure that it is in working order, as maintenance staff will only be allowed into the room in exceptional circumstances.

Bedlinen and disposable items (gloves, aprons, overshoes, cutlery and crockery) should be kept in a utility room or anteroom along with the patient's treatment chart and a radiation monitor.

Although the patient will have been assessed in the outpatient department, it is important that all patients are reassessed on admission for their suitability for treatment. In particular, the needs of a debilitated patient must be assessed to ensure that appropriate nursing care can be provided within the time constraints. A review of a patient who was quadriplegic, doubly incontinent and unable to swallow found that nurses could provide appropriate care while following the recommended radiation protection restrictions (Williams and Woodward [78]). Multidisciplinary co‐ordination of care is required in such complex cases.

Before the administration of any unsealed sources, any symptoms of diarrhoea or constipation must be resolved. Diarrhoea could result in contamination of the treatment area. Constipation not only inhibits the elimination of radioactivity but also could obscure radiological investigations, for example scanning. All investigations, including blood tests, must be undertaken before administration of diagnostic and therapeutic unsealed sources. If essential specimens need to be processed after administration, the specimen and the request card must be labelled with a radiation warning sticker. The laboratories must follow their standard operating procedures for processing and disposal of these specimens.