October is National Safe Work Australia month

October is National Safe Work Australia month and this year’s theme is “Safety is a frame of mind. Get the picture.” During October all workers in Australia are asked to think about their reason for staying safe at work. The Alliance for Sharps Safety and Needlestick Prevention in Healthcare recognises that this applies to healthcare workers who face the risk of needlestick and sharps injuries every day.
Sharps and needlestick injury incidents in Australia affect at least 18,000 healthcare workers each year. Needlestick or sharps injury can cause healthcare worker exposure to potentially life threatening bloodborne diseases such as hepatitis B or C or HIV. Injuries cause great stress for healthcare workers and their families and they generate significant avoidable cost for the Australian healthcare system.
Safe Work Australia Chair, Ann Sherry AO, is quoted as saying: “Safe working environments are critical for good business in Australia. Change in workplaces happens because individuals care.”
The Alliance for Sharps Safety and Needlestick Injury Prevention in Healthcare is calling on state and federal jurisdictions to mandate the use of safety engineered devices.
On 1 January 2012 new work health and safety (WHS) laws commenced in many states and territories in Australia. The guiding principle of the new legislation is that all people are given the highest level of health and safety protection from hazards arising from work, so far as is reasonably practicable. 'Reasonably practicable' means doing what is effective and possible to ensure the health and safety of workers and others.
Alliance Chair Professor Cathryn Murphy said: “The Alliance partners believe that every needlestick or sharps injury at work is a foreseeable hazard to healthcare workers. Prevention of injury should be regarded as reasonably practicable, moreover it should be a fundamental principle of occupational health and safety legislation.”
“International experience has proven that the risk of occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens from a needlestick or sharps injury can be eliminated through the mandatory use of safety engineered devices, education of healthcare workers and mandatory reporting of injuries,” concluded Professor Murphy.
More information about the Alliance and the issue of needlestick or sharps injury as a workplace health and safety issue is available at http://www.allianceforsharpssafety.org/