UPDATE HEALTH & SAFETY
With the EU directive on sharps coming into play in May, CCGs may wish to consider a proactive approach to procuring safer products and services. JULIA DENNISON finds out how CCGs can help integrate risk assessment and needle-stick prevention throughout their locality
E
verybody remembers their first needle-stick. Sometimes it’s more memorable than others. The surgeon and blogger behind ScalpelorSword.blogspot.
Sticking points
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WWW.COMMISSIONINGSUCCESS.COM
co.uk remembers his like it was yesterday. He was a medical student (surgeons in training are at a particularly high risk) and working with AIDS patients in an intensive care unit – the last place you want a needle to break your skin. At the time he had been awake for 24 hours, most of which, he said, “was spent on high alert, putting out fires, juggling life and death”. But there was no rest for the weary, as he remembers: “Rounds were coming up, and this patient needed a central venous catheter pronto. His blood pressure was 60 systolic, and he was losing his battle with entropy. His femoral pulse was barely palpable, and his slight agitation made finding the vein difficult. After several attempts, finally I got it. I probably breathed a sigh of relief as I threaded a long wire through the four-inch- long 14-gauge needle, withdrew the needle over the wire and placed it down on the sterile drape where it disappeared, rolling unnoticed under a crease in the paper.” The rest of the procedure was smooth sailing, until he removed the drape, wadded it up to throw it away – and “OUCH!” The good news is, after much scrubbing, a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and a stressful year wondering, his tests came back negative, but it left this doctor with an uncertain feeling of ‘what if?’ Like this surgeon-cum-blogger, most UK health workers are fine after a needle-stick injury, but the anxiety can be great and taking a PEP can have very unpleasant side-effects that can have you running for the nearest loo. So the key is prevention.
FUTURE PERFECT Hopefully stories like the one above will be a thing of the past. A directive was published in the Official Journal of the European Union in 2010 to prevent injuries and the spread of blood-borne infections, such as HIV and Hepatitis B and C, to hospital and healthcare workers from sharp instruments like needles.
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