New needle stick safety law a victory, but governments must act now - Liz Lynne

1.10.01pm GMT Mon 8th Mar 2010

Euro MP Liz Lynne has hailed a decision by EU ministers in Brussels today to adopt new laws to tackle the serious risks faced by nurses and other workers from needlestick injuries at work.

Nursing organisations and campaigners estimate that every year, across the EU, up to one million preventable injuries are sustained from needle sticks and sharp objects in hospitals and surgeries. For the UK alone, the estimate is 100,000 annual incidents.

These injuries can transmit blood borne infections such as Hepatitis C and HIV.

Liz Lynne, Vice President of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee, has campaigned for this legislation since 2004 and drafted the European Parliament's recent resolution on the subject. She said:

"This is a victory for healthcare workers across Europe.

"For too long people dedicated to improving the health of others have themselves been exposed to the daily threat of life threatening infections from needle stick injuries.

"Many of those injured face an agonising wait to find out whether they have contracted a blood borne infection such as HIV or Hepatitis C.

"The majority of these injuries are avoidable, and these new laws should cut dramatically the number of incidents."

Liz Lynne also urged all EU member state governments - which have two years to implement this law - to move quickly:

"Every day that goes by involves more risk, more incidents, and more unnecessary trauma.

"All EU Member States now have 2 years to implement these changes, but there is no time to waste and we must now have speedy implementation and detailed guidance to ensure consistent application of the new requirements."

"Between now and 2012 we can expect 200,000 needle stick injuries in the UK health sector alone.

"The British government should act to cut that number now, not drag its heels."

"I look forward to the day when I can meet with healthcare workers and not hear horrifying stories of accidents involving used needles"

Notes to Editors:

All EU Member States now have 2 years to bring in the new requirements outlined in the legislation.

West Midlands MEP Liz Lynne is Vice President of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee, which is responsible for Health and Safety in the Workplace. Liz has campaigned for 6 years for an amendment to existing EU legislation on Biological Agents to ensure mandatory standards in the workplace to better protect healthcare workers and ancillary workers, including a ban on re-sheathing.

In 2006 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on protecting European healthcare workers from blood-borne infections due to needle-stick injuries. The resolution requested the Commission 'to submit to EP within three months of the date of adoption of the resolution, a legislative proposal for amending Directive 2000/54/EC on biological agents'. This did not happen.

After years of pressure from the Parliament, the Commission did eventually draft an amendment to the biological agents directive last year, via a proposal for a directive, however this was dropped because the social partners (hospital employers and health worker unions) decided to enter formal negotiations, which they had no intention of doing until they knew that we had succeeded in getting the proposal through Parliament.

The social partners adopted an agreement last year and Liz Lynne's report last month gave the Parliament's support for this. Following the adoption of this by Member States, they will then have 2 years to bring in the changes.

ENDS