@ Kenny
"...Have they invented digital X-ray sensor cells?..."
Yes, they have. The first such unit I used was in 1996 here in London. It was a charged selenium drum, the surface charge of which was altered by the X-rays that had passed through the patient. A set of brushes then 'reads' the charge difference and maps it out digitally. That DICOM image goes straight to a dry laser printer.
These days: we have other detectors, some semi-flexible in casssette form (you can even do portable X-rays with them) and others are rigid trays that are housed in couch and wall-mounted X-ray units.
Thus you can have an entire hospital that is filmless, which means you don't need a darkroom, or any processing chemicals at all. The Hammersmith Hospital in London has been filmless for almost 7 years. The radiographs are now stored on a computer database instead of hardcopy films being stored in a filing room.
This also means that you can have a chest X-ray done at one of these facilities with digital imaging and the radiograph can be reported by the radiologist at home (over the net) or even a specialist overseas.
