Reducing needle stick injuries in healthcare

In the five years to 2017, NHS Resolution paid over £4 million in compensation to 1,213 claimants for needle stick-related injury. Chris Stanton provides an insight into strategies for reducing the risks to patients and healthcare workers, using engineering analysis tools.

Obligations are placed on healthcare providers to ensure staff safety is maximised by reducing the risks present in the workplace. This duty of care extends beyond employees to cover everyone who may be injured by activities undertaken in the routine processes and standard operating procedures of a hospital, clinic or other medical centre. Injuries are preventable. They lead to physical and psychological trauma, are expensive and a burden on healthcare resources, as well as causing significant reputational damage to the hospital.

Many injury prevention methods rely on working practices, staff training and competence, yet safety can be addressed more effectively by equipment design, which eliminates or dramatically reduces injury risks. The benefit of an equipment design solution is that the risk can be eliminated by reducing the danger at point-of-use or pointof-action, or otherwise referred to as a ‘no fault forward’ methodology. This is important as implemented procedures often adequately address risk in one area, only for it to cause an increased risk downstream.