PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE – REMOVING THE RISK OF NEEDLESTICK INJURY

Every parent’s nightmare – a needlestick injury to your child and an agonising three month wait for the results of countless health tests.

Needlestick injuries have hit the headlines again this week after an 8-year-old Adelaide girl suffered a needlestick injury when her finger was pricked on a used syringe protruding from a sharps container in a service station toilet. Despite the syringe being disposed of in a sharps container the injury was not prevented – bringing to light significant physical, emotional and financial health costs.

The child’s mother, Simone Percy, has launched a petition to the South Australian Health Minister Hon. Peter Malinauskas, to have sharps disposal containers better regulated.

While steps toward such regulation should be encouraged and applauded, there is a better solution which will prevent most needle stick injuries from occurring at all.

Retractable Safety Syringe technology results in the needle retracting safely into the barrel after use. Mandating the use of this technology is a practical and meaningful way of preventing needle reuse, needlestick injury, and the spread of blood borne pathogens. This technology is;

• is sophisticated, leading edge technology
• is currently used as industry best practice across the world
• meets international medical device safety standards
• prevents needle re-use and reduces the risk of needle stick injury

Recently the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that by 2020 every hospital and clinic should only use “smart syringes” that are designed so they can’t be used more than once and reduce the risk of needlestick injury and the spread of blood-borne diseases.

The statistics are frightening and Australia is not immune:

• Somewhere in the world every 60 seconds of every day six people suffer a needlestick injury and three people die as a result of needlestick injuries.
• In Australia there are 30 needlestick injuries per 100 hospital beds per year and at least 18,000 Australian healthcare professionals suffer from needlestick injuries per year.

And these statistics only relate to healthcare workers. They do not include injuries to the general public, like Simone Percy’s daughter, or other professionals at direct risk including fire-fighters, law-enforcement professionals, waste and rubbish management professionals and others.

These injuries simply do not need to occur and prevention is better than cure. South Australia and Australia might consider following the lead of USA, EU, Korea, and Puerto Rico and mandating the use of safety syringes in the healthcare sector and wider community.

Thankfully in this instance, after three traumatic months of testing, significant physical, emotional and financial health costs including costs to the tax payer, the little girl has been given the all clear from illnesses like HIV, Hepatitis A, B & C.

For more information please contact:

• Neville Calvert | CEO | Numedico Technologies | 0419881609 | neville@numedico.com.au