Safer Needles Network campaigns to stop 100,000 needlestick injuries to healthcare workers every year, supported by Unison, RCN and BMA
BD is backing efforts by the Safer Needles Network to reduce the high number of healthcare workers involved every year in cases of needlestick injury (NSI).
It is supporting the Needlestick Awareness Week Roadshow that started out on 15 March visiting five major cities to explain the impact of the imminent Department of Health guidance on sharps injuries and present effective implementation strategies for the introduction of safer needle devices.
BD is also highlighting the key role of blood collection systems.
The company is urging phlebotomists and those associated with blood collection for laboratory analysis to re-assess the risks to which they are exposed and evaluate new, safer alternatives.
'Safer Needles Now' was launched by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Unison and the British Medical Association (BMA) on 23 February 2004 demanding that workers should never again catch HIV and other deadly viruses from needlestick incidents in NHS hospitals.
Around 100,000 accidents involving needles and sharps occur annually in the UK and injury during phlebotomy and cannulation is the primary route of occupational virus acquisition.
The risks associated with sustaining infection from contaminated sharps are estimated at one in three for hepatitis B, one in 30 for hepatitis C and one in 300 for HIV.
The first documented case of a healthcare worker becoming infected with HIV following a NSI was in the UK.
Five UK healthcare workers are known to have contracted HIV following a needlestick injury at work.
Four of them have subsequently died and there are a further twelve cases of 'probable' occupationally acquired infection.
With the rate of general HIV infections in the UK rising by 20% per annum, health unions are demanding that workers have access to safer needles, improved training for staff, the introduction of standard precautions, better monitoring of NSI's and safer disposal of sharps.
BD has been committed to the design of safe and effective medical technology for many years.
It is the most widely accepted manufacturer of safety needle systems for blood collection that meet Osha, Niosh, Geres and Siroh recommendations with published data in reducing needle stick injuries
