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Posted By Katiem
Can anyone tell me if there is any guidance on handling used needles e.g. members of staff finding used needles-not care/health sector- in or outside premises.
At the moment all I have to go on are robust forms of PPE (that's after employing your control hirearchy).
Any comments please?
Thanks
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Posted By Peter J Harvey
This is an area that I have done a great deal of work on and an area, which is often overlooked.
Its good old fasioned risk assessment to start with and then looking at the type of location that you are removing needles from. Unfortunately there are no easy ways of picking these up but you need to try and not use the hands.
So your options are sweep, litter pick (very hard) or for small numbers use a a plunger grab tool, available from most DIY shops. These are normally intended to retrieve hard to reach srews or bolts, you push the plunger down, the grab comes out, pick up the needle, release the plunger and it is secure.
Don't forget staff training and the need to try and eliminate the risk at source?
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Posted By Mork
Our local HPA Communicable Disease Control Nurse advises that latex gloves should be used where there is a risk of needstick injuries. They obviously do not stop needlestick injuries but have a cleaning action on the needle if pierced.
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Posted By Mork
... and as you say, that's after employing your control hirearchy.
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Posted By Tony Overbury
This is an area that occupies quite a lot of my time. I certainly agree that an assessment of risks is the first place to start as it will help to prioritise action and expenditure. Some thoughts:
You may wish to consider needlestick risks, but also risks from bodily fluids, any disinfectant sprays etc and, possibly, risks from performing clear-up operations in the presence of drug users.
The key trick is to avoid being cut/stuck in the first place, so the use of remote handling is essential (where practical). The use of brush/shovel is good for a lot of waste and we find that litter pickers are also useful. This will clear up the 'easy' wastes. Dealing with clothing/bedding (if this is a problem) is more difficult, and we employ needle-resistant gloves. Of course, all the waste is consigned as clinical waste.
Our crew are also immunised againgst Hep B and Tetanus.
Hope this helps, but please don't hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss further.
Tony
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Posted By Alan Barthrope
Katiem,
Some of the Sharps kits can be quite useful.
They often come with tweezers (or similar) which are better than litter pickers for picking up small objects. This saves getting the hands to close. Using dust pans and brushes may initially be OK but you then have to coax the needles into the sharps bins, which may not be that simple without using the hands. We have come across problems in the past where there have been so many needles the sharps bin has soon become full, leaving the operatives wondering where to stick the rest. An assessment of the likely number of implements to be found would help. Training and inoculations, as previously said is a must, as is the correct disposal.
Regards
Alan B
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Posted By Emma Forbes
Hi,
Our staff are involved in street sweeping, and although it isn't a huge problem where we are, we supply each vehicle with a dose of sharps boxes and disposable tweezers which we buy in at a small cost from our local hospital.
The procedure is that they pick the needle up using the tweezers, place the needle and the tweezers into the box and lock it. They are instructed to use a new box for every needle they find, log the location and take the secure sharp box to the nearest hospital who will dipose of it. This policy was devised with our local NHS board, I think their co-operation is vital.
As mentioned previously, training of staff is essential. We supply a copy of the procedure in each vehicle for them to reference to.
Hope this helps,
Emma.
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