Monday 1st December is World AIDS Day; a time for people around the world to unite against HIV and show their support for the 100,000 people living with HIV worldwide.
At Russell Worth solicitors we are taking this opportunity to raise awareness of needle-stick injuries and the increasing need to reduce their prevalence across the UK.
In October this year, a survey conducted by the British Association of Dental Nurses (BADN) and Initial Medical indicated that over 50% of dental nurses working in the UK and the Republic of Ireland have suffered a needlestick injury at some point during their career.
“Needlestick safety is such an important issue,” said Pam Swain, chief executive for BADN. “We ran this survey in conjunction with Initial Medical, to gauge how at risk our members are and how comfortable they feel with their needlestick safety training, particularly since new health and safety regulations came into place in the UK last year.”
The survey, commissioned in August this year, questioned 1216 British Association of Dental Nurses from across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. 99% of those who responded live in the UK and 1% from the Republic of Ireland.
Of those questioned who said that they had suffered a needle-stick injury, 60% said they’d suffered more than one, with 11% of these incidents taking place in the last year. 41% of participants who’d suffered a sharps injury said the last incident had occurred after use, before the instrument was disposed of.
It is reassuring that over 97% of participants who’d suffered an injury knew the necessary steps to take. Of those surveyed, 52% rated their training on needle-stick injuries as ‘very good’ and 29% ‘good’. Interestingly though, 21% of respondents from the UK said that their practice had not put any new safety procedures or safety devices in place since the Health & Safety (Safe Instruments in Healthcare) Regulations 2013 were introduced. Of those participants who’d suffered an injury, 1.24% said that they had acquired a blood-borne virus as a result.
“The risk of infection following a needle-stick injury is estimated to be 1 in 3 for HBV, 1 in 30 for HCV and 1 in 300 for HIV for healthcare workers worldwide*, so it is vital that best practice is followed,” said Rebecca Allen, category manager for Initial Medical. ”If you don’t feel like you have had appropriate sharps safety training or you don’t feel the right procedures are being followed, then it is imperative you make this known within your practice.”
Gavin Moat, Director at Russell Worth solicitors, said: ““World AIDS Day seems an appropriate time to raise awareness of needle-stick injuries. This survey questioned over 1200 people and over half of those have had needle-stick injuries, which is concerning.
“Practices need to ensure that they are conducting thorough training on sharps safety in line with the Health & Safety (Safe Instruments in Healthcare) Regulations 2013. If they don’t, there is a big risk that the large number of injuries sustained by nurses will continue, putting them at risk of developing blood-borne viruses such as HIV.”
*Safer Needle Network 2006