The Info Fleamarket

Needle and sharps can cause dangerous diseases when they are infected. NHS staff has been prone to suffering from such small but life threatening injuries and an estimate says that around 100,000 injuries take place every year.

The need for protecting health care staff from such diseases was understood by UNISON, whose Head of Health led negotiations between the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) and the European hospital and healthcare employers’ association.

The negotiations led to an agreement between the parties, which stated that the aim is to ensure the curtailment of needle injuries and put policies in place in case such injuries happen. The agreement also intends to provide help and protection to those health workers who are suffering from or due to these injuries.

This agreement led to the new guidelines which the EU has come up with for the protection of NHS staff. Contact the experts at Workplace Law Training to find out about their accredited IOSH Distance Learning course which can assist companies in training staff to be aware of the proper health and safety procedures for all kinds of workplace situations in an environment to suit your organsations needs.

Karen Jennings, the Head of Health at UNISON, is bolstered by the fact that their efforts have yielded such good results. She emphasised the need to protect the staff and also said that these workers do not deserve to live in fear of getting infected while working.

The cost of preventing the disease by using safer injections is much lower than the cost of providing treatment and compensation to workers once they have suffered the injuries. In addition to that, the mental agony and pain caused by these injuries is also high and all of it added together shows the importance of strict compliance with the guidelines.