Safety measures for front-line workers announced
Monday August 27, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
The Ontario government has announced its plan to increase safety for nurses and other healthcare workers by purchasing 55 million N95 respirators and mandating the use of safety engineered needles or needle-less systems in hospitals.

“By investing in better equipment, we are putting the lessons we have learned from SARS into action,” Health and Long-Term Care Minister George Smitherman said in a news release.

“These new respirators will help provide protection that nurses and other front-line healthcare providers deserve because their health and safety must be paramount when dealing with infectious diseases.”

In a statement released Aug. 23, the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) applauded the announcement, saying its members are thrilled to hear their employers will be mandated to provide safety engineered needles. The ONA says nurses sustain 58 per cent of needlestick injuries.

“The ONA has gone to considerable lengths to demonstrate the effectiveness of and the need for our members to have access to safety engineered devices,” ONA president and registered nurse Linda Haslam-Stroud said in a news release.

Safety engineered needles work by preventing front-line workers from being punctured by the needle, which may carry blood-borne diseases.

The use of safety engineered needles will be mandatory in Ontario hospitals by Sept. 1, 2008. The province says it will work with stakeholders in long-term care homes, psychiatric facilities, laboratories and specimen collection centres to introduce safety engineered needles into those disciplines by 2009.

In response to the government’s plan to stockpile 55 million N95 respirators, the ONA says it’s pleased to hear the province engaging in precautionary measures as recommended in the late Justice Archie Campbell’s SARS report.

The ONA, which represents 53,000 front-line registered nurses and allied health professionals, lost two its members during the SARS outbreak in 2003 as a result of respirators that didn’t fit properly.

“The ONA has been pushing for the government to provide N95 respirators, at a minimum, to protect members from contracting SARS, or influenza, or other infectious disease,” Haslam-Stroud said. “The government’s announcement (Aug. 23) that it will stockpile N95s is a positive thing for protecting the health and lives of our members and their families.”

The N95 respirators are designed to offer superior protection in comparison to surgical masks. Healthcare workers will be fit-testing the N95 masks to ensure proper protection. The stockpile of 55 million respirators is expected to meet the demand of a four-week period during a pandemic.