A deadly prick?

[J lindsay]

Almost half of my professional life has been spent as a specialist helping to start and grow businesses, internationally, and to launch new products or services. A number of years ago, I was retained by a company that had invented a hypodermic syringe that categorically COULD NOT be used more than once. It self destructed as the final step of usage.

Aside from the usual challenges with any new product, a significant number of countries health services point blank refused to consider the product. Why? Because no matter how low the price of this new and far safer product, IT COULD ONLY BE USED ONCE! Typically said some, they expected to use a syringe 10 or 12 times at least. Their budget required it.

This morning, apropos of the numerous shortcomings and criticisms of T&Ts health services, (Damn! It seems so wrong to call it a service, now doesn't it. That would be as bad as referring to T&T's "Health Professionals") it occured to me to ask, does anyone here know to what extent hypodermic syringes are used more often than once in our hospitals.

The dangers are quite obvious in these days of escalating AIDS, and of course the "official response" may be that such a thing does not happen. But really! If it does, just like many of the other foolishly cruel and inhumane things we hear about almost every week these days, is there anyone prepared to let on?

Please ask around, our lives could depend upon it.

[Falcon]

The hospitals do not use needles more than once.
The Health Centres do not use needles more than once.

I cannot speak for the doctors in private practice but I cannot say they don't re-use needles after 'cleaning' them. Sure, some of them sterilise their needles through autoclaves, but the post-sterilisation handling and storage of the needles make a mockery of the sterilisation process. They are disinfected at best.

I know for a fact that MANY vets in Trinidad re-use needles for vaccination and medication of pets. Once a sterile packaging (plastic or paper) is not opened immediately prior to administration of substances, or worse yet a phlebotomy, the needle and its shaft aren't sterile. They sterilise needles by pumping alcohol through, then maybe autoclaving or boiling (!). The needles are then stored in bulk, on the shelf. Never mind alcohol fixes blood to the inside of the hollow needle. And of course never mind that animals' skins are generally tough and render a needle functionally dull after once use.

Practitioners that re-use needles tend to use them more than twice.

[Falcon]

You should always ask your vet if he/she is re-using needles, if you suspect they are.

Demand better.

[guyguy]

It is against the law to reuse needles and syringes in the US. Besides, the syringes are made from plastic, as is the hub of the needle, so autoclaving would destroy them anyway. If you were to see a doctor or nurse get ready to stab you with a glass syringe and/or a metal needle, you should insist that they don't, and that they use a new needle.

You're correct Falcon. The bevel of needles get dull even after one stick into a human being's skin, even up to 18 gauge needles, so it's definitely worse in animals.

[sylvestter]

i never knew that some vets reused needles.
that's absolutely appalling!

[Falcon]

.......more than some.........

[vaio]

i never knew that some vets reused needles.
that's absolutely appalling!

me either!! :s:

[snowbird]

never heard of reusing needles by any type of Physicians either....guess it depends on what part of the world you live in....or should I say what region of a particular country....An eye opener anyway.

[lexbarker]

I know someone who when travelling includes needles in his travel medicine kit.
I still remember during the 50s polio vaccination in primary school, the syringe looked lke it was 6 inches long by abut an inch in diameter and the needle was bout 4 inches long. That scared the hell ut of me and children were yelling as if they were going to the gillotine. After each use the nurse would pass it over a small flame and wipe it.

[Poser]

Saskatchewan hospital also reused syringes: health officials
Last Updated: Friday, October 31, 2008 | 4:21 PM ET Comments139Recommend68CBC News
A hospital in Lloydminster, Sask., has been reusing syringes to inject medication into intravenous lines, a practice that recently raised widespread concern in Alberta.

On Thursday, the province's chief medical health officer, Dr. Moira McKinnon, confirmed that Lloydminster Hospital has been reusing syringes this way. The border-town hospital serves patients from both Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health has launched an investigation to determine whether other health regions are also reusing syringes. Health officials said they don't know how long the practice has been going on. Nor can they say how many patients may have been exposed to risk.

"The risk, as I said, is extremely low and we've got experts working on exactly what that risk is," said McKinnon.

"We will move to testing if that's necessary, if the risk shows that that's necessary."

In the meantime, McKinnon has issued a cautionary alert to the province's health regions about reusing syringes.

Although needles should be used only once, the risk of acquiring an infection from a syringe used twice in an IV line is exceptionally low, McKinnon said.

"You're not actually penetrating the patient, you're only putting it into a tube that follows down to the patient's arm. There is a theoretical risk that there can be some back flow of that blood and contamination, but it's a theoretical risk only," she said.

On Friday, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute said the provinces should work together to find out what happened and look at the risk to patients.

It's understanding … what has actually gone on, what has happened, understanding exactly the process and the risks associated with contamination," said the institute's chief executive, Philip Hassen.

"That needs to be done very, very carefully and very quickly so that we can then determine what patients, if any, are at risk and what you do about it."

The Alberta government issued a similar alert Thursday, saying it had discovered another instance of a health professional practising in Saskatchewan and Alberta who had reused single-use syringes to administer medication through an IV line.

"We know that a physician who practises in the Lloydminster and Vermilion hospitals has been administering multiple doses of medication through IV lines to multiple patients," Alberta Health and Wellness said in a release.

Earlier this week, tests were ordered for thousands of people who received treatment in High Prairie, Alta., after it was learned that a hospital there had been reusing syringes for years.

The province said it learned nurses at the High Prairie Health Complex had been routinely injecting drugs into patients' intravenous lines with the same syringe.

Alberta Health Services said it would be contacting patients by phone and registered mail for followup blood testing. Patients will be tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C.

With files from the Canadian Press

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/10/30/syringes-lloydminster.html#ixzz0zXjOBvaW

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[Poser]

Class-action lawsuit launched over reused syringes in Canada


www.chinaview.cn 2008-11-23 08:16:49 Print

OTTAWA, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Canada's federal government and three provincial governments after thousands patients were found involved in the reuse of syringes by health services.

This past week, the Regional Health authority of Winnipeg in Manitoba province announced it would test 17 city residents for blood-borne infections after it was learned a nurse reused a finger-stick blood sampling device on patients between May 2007 and October 2008.

That news came after neighboring Saskatchewan province announced last month it was conducting a province-wide investigation into the reported reuse of single-use syringes in several cities.

Days before, the Alberta government revealed that up to 2,700 dental and endoscopy patients might have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis through the reuse of syringes in IV lines at a regional hospital.

That suggests the practice of reusing single-use syringes could be more widespread than anyone knows, said lawyer Tony Merchant of the Merchant Law Group Saturday, which filed the class action on the basis of the Alberta and Saskatchewan cases.

"Cockroaches come in groups," said Merchant. "If these mistakes are known to have happened in Alberta, Winnipeg, and the five districts in Saskatchewan ... my worry for the nation is that it could be happening across the country."

Under Canada's national health care system, provincial governments are responsible for the management of health services.

The reuse of syringes and needles poses a risk of infecting patients with blood-borne diseases, such as HIV, Hepatitis C, and Hepatitis B.

The statement of the lawsuit said the agencies and governments were negligent, breached their duties, committed battery and breached the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The lawsuit seeks compensation for any blood-borne diseases contracted by the plaintiffs because of syringe reuse, for the testing patients will have to undergo to determine if they were infected, and for emotional distress. But no figure was given for monetary compensation.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/23/content_10398144.htm

[snowbird]

^^^
never heard about any of this.....just goes to show how 'self absorbed' we are.... if it is not happening in our region.... we do not hear about it....but this is good to know.

I particularly like the 'heads up' about taking syringes when you go abroad.... makes good sense as most of the time you may be travelling to a third world country.

...good stuff guys.

[Falcon]

What's the use in taking new syringes to the third world and they sticking a dirty old needle on it?

[dancerboy]

What's the use in taking new syringes to the third world and they sticking a dirty old needle on it?

Because they are FILL-IN-TNE-BLANKS.



DANCERBOY