Needlestick

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NeedleInHand

Protecting Health Care Workers from Sharps

More than 33,000 health care workers in Ontario suffer needle stick injuries every year. It costs $66-million every year to test and treat reported injuries in Ontario. The good news is that since 2005 an SEIU-initiated national campaign has led to legislation and/or regulations for the mandatory use of safety engineered medical devices in 5 provinces. That means Canada can easily reduce its needle stick injuries by 90 percent!

SEIU Local 1 Canada’s lobby campaign, along with the Ontario Nurses Association, Ontario Public Service Employees Union and the Ontario Federation of Labour, pressured the Ontario provincial government into introducing workplace safety laws that would:

1. Bring in safety-engineered medical devices
2. Create an exposure control plan
3. Train and educate workers and managers on safety device usage
4. Keep a sharps injury log
5. Create a post-exposure protocol

In Ontario, implementation of safety devices was established Sep. 2008 in acute care settings. In Sep. 2009, the provincial government promises that long term care facilities and all other health care environments will follow suit.

The SEIU Canada national campaign has been great success across Canada. Governments in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, have taken many positive steps to protect health care workers from needlestick.

SEIU Local 1 Canada and its partners will make sure needlestick injuries all throughout Canada become a thing of the past. People’s lives depend on it.



Needle Safety Regulation Expanded

As of April 1, 2009, the Needle Safety Regulation (O.Reg.474/07) has been expanded to include long term care homes (nursing homes, homes for the aged), psychiatric facilities, rest homes and laboratories and specimen collection centres, in addition to hospitals which were previously covered by the regulation.

To assist OPSEU members who work in workplaces newly covered by the regulation (and those still not covered), OPSEU is providing a number of guidance documents to assist health and safety representatives and Joint Health and Safety Committees work with their employers to implement the expanded regulation appropriately. OPSEU strongly encourages members to use these guidance documents and to collaborate with workers from the other health care unions to ensure the regulation is implemented. 

Ontario Regulation 474/07 Needle Safety has been expanded 
Step-by-Step Process for Sharps Safety Initiative
Sharps Safety Initiative - Legislation
Sharps/Needle Safety Position