TORONTO –Ontario healthcare workers have
launched a province-wide print, radio and outdoor advertising
campaign to push the Ontario government to make
safety-engineered medical sharps mandatory.
The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Ontario
Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) want a law making the
use of safety needles mandatory in all workplaces where
workers are exposed to blood-borne pathogens. They say this
would prevent 33,000 injuries a year in Ontario and save
millions of dollars.
“Safety needles would save on a multitude of
injuries, not only across our health care system, but in our
communities as well,” said Patty Rout, Chair of OPSEU’s Health
Care Divisional Council. “The members of our three unions were
considered heroes by many because they put their own lives on
the line to protect Ontarians from SARS. Now, our members are
asking the government to protect them.”
“The government must show it is serious
about protecting the health of Ontario’s nurses by making the
use of safety-engineered devices mandatory,” said ONA
President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN. “While one-time hospital
funding is a beginning, a law is the only way to ensure
hospitals and other employers provide the safest equipment
available to prevent workers from being exposed to serious
diseases, like hepatitis and HIV, through needlestick
injuries.”
“We can protect lives and save the
health-care system money,” said Cathy Carroll,
Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU Local1.on. “Other governments in
Canada recognize that using safety engineered needles is a
win-win situation. Manitoba and Saskatchewan have laws taking
effect in 2006 to protect their workers through safety
technology. Ontario workers need that same protection.”
Research cited by the unions shows:
- The annual cost of testing and treating
needlestick injuries in Ontario, in health care alone, is
$66-million;
- In facilities where safety needles are in
use, up to 90 per cent of sharps injuries are prevented;
- About $8 million would be saved every
year in Ontario by eliminating unsafe medical sharps.
The advertising campaign will run across the
province from Nov. 14 until Dec. 12. Visit the web at:
www.saferneedles.ca
David Cox, OPSEU,
416-788-9197 (cell)
Carl Mavromichalis, SEIU, 416-951-4905 (cell)
Sheree Bond, ONA 416-964-8833 ext 2430
