Celebrating World Safety and Health at Work Day

We have been pioneering medical device advancement for over 70 years and part of this success is because we listen and understand what the challenges are of hospital treatments for people all over the world. By continually working with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients, we can determine how we can best deliver comfortable, accurate and most importantly safe medical devices that draw on our manufacturing experience. 

It's crucial to understand the real-world hurdles experienced by those who use our devices, as well as the benefits experienced by the innovative mechanisms that our safety engineered devices bring. We had the pleasure of catching up with NHS Wales’ Medical Devices Training Manager, Paul Lee, on the importance of introducing safety engineered medical devices into the workspace and how their workforce has found the experience. Thanks to him he has shined a light on what processes must be followed for hospitals to introduce the devices we make, and most importantly what sort of positive impact they have on the everyday lives of those who use them. 

How are these risks identified? 
Well, we use a stratified risk assessment process by identifying the area of risk, the likelihood of exposure to blood and blood contaminated products, and whether an alternative device is available, and of course the potential harm. We review this on an annual basis as new safety devices are coming out all the time. It isn’t always the case that a safety engineered device is the answer to a problem. On many occasions, we’ve tried, tested and evaluated safety devices in the clinical practice areas and found some are too cumbersome. They affect the delicate handling skills of the clinician and therefore we opt for the non-safety device. But this decision is backed up with PPE, safe systems of work training, safe disposal processes etc. Things that we have always had in place anyway. It’s just that the staff are now more aware and often look out for backup systems and support that we have. 

What role do safety medical devices play in supporting Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in the workplace? 
Well, as I’ve already outlined, it’s not just the legislative requirements, but it’s about doing the right thing. Seatbelts are in all modern cars and are part of the safety systems to reduce injury, harm and of course, fatalities. 
And safety devices, by design should be easy to use but not affect the handling and the clinical outcomes required. And with good design and good engineering, this can be achieved. Some devices are better than others, they handle better and are more cost effective. As I’ve said, it’s all about making it easy for people to do the right thing. In our health board today, if you pick up an IV cannula, a needle or any injection devices, it does its job and it reduces or eradicates injury or harm. In our health board, we have almost eradicated needlestick injuries from the use of IV cannula, as we only use safety engineered devices across the board. 
My clinical colleagues at first feared the change, the different handling, being unable to manage the change. But ask any of them today if they’d go back to using non safety IV cannula, and I think they would most certainly say no. They wouldn’t drive a car today without seatbelts. Why would they? They wouldn’t choose a non safety cannula that causes injury to staff and others, time off work for inoculations and mental health and well being issues for users, and potential for bloodborne viruses to be easily passed on. 

Do you feel there is more awareness needed on the importance of using safety medical devices? 
Health and safety always needs to be reinforced. The message may be with our existing staff, but there is a huge changeover of staff in the NHS as new staff come into the profession, staff from outside agencies, outside our geographical area, and we don’t know what their background for safety training is, or indeed if they have come from a previous employer with excellent safety sharps adoption, or none at all. 
So, keeping the messaging going, reinforcing awareness through training initiatives, sharing information through newsletters, updates, policy reviews and sharing our audit results is always a good thing. 

What has your journey been like in adopting safety medical devices? 
Well, not easy. Please don’t underestimate the work needed to get the ball rolling, but when you do, then keeping the momentum is also important. We’ve got a great team, albeit very small, and a dedicated group of staff to support us that are the driver for change and keeping things safe. We have a fabulous safety sharps catalogue to help staff see images of the device, with manufacturers, user guides and also the right part number to order as well.
Our procurement team block any orders for anything that is non safety, and these can only go forward with a signed, agreed risk assessment that's reviewed every year to see if it's still appropriate and if anything, new has come to market. So, we have our seatbelts in place. 
We are constantly looking at new and innovative devices and also looking at our non safety devices that are in place to see when and how we can move our clinical users over to a more suitable and safer device, if at all possible. 
From my experience, we won't be able to change every single device to a safety product, as some devices are so small, they really do make things worse and that's not what the legislation is about. It's all about making it easy for people to do the right thing and we're always looking, always learning and always improving them.