The Needledock system is a ground-breaking solution to address potential needle stick injuries. Our aim is to introduce simple ideas to protect healthcare workers and patients while providing a cost-saving reassurance to employers. Granted Patents and Design Registrations are also in place, recognising our ongoing commitment to innovation.
According to the Royal College of Nursing, needle stick injuries cost each NHS Trust £500,000 annually1. In the United States, there are 385,000 reported injuries per year relating to needle sticks, 41% of which occur after use (Before or during disposal)2. In May 2017, NHS Resolution reported that in the period 2012-2017, 1833 legal claims were received, of which 1200 were settled, costing the NHS more than £4,000,000 in compensation settlements for needle stick injuries. Most concerning is that 75% of claimants were ancillary staff who are not the users of medical needles but have been exposed to blood borne pathogens such as hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as a result of their daily work duties3.
This indicates that current methods, technology and working practices for handling and disposing of needles is inadequate.
Best practice guidelines as defined by the Royal College of Nursing and the Health and Safety Executive and many international organisations and standards bodies advocate the use of Sharps Bins as an ‘engineering control’ to prevent needle stick injuries. However, the above data taken in the years after this best practice guidance was introduced, shows that sharps bins are an inadequate solution to a major problem that affects the health and well-being of all workers in healthcare environments and costs the NHS millions of pounds per year.
Healthcare professionals working under stressful conditions are required to follow specific guidelines and procedures in the disposal of used syringes. However, as the number of needle stick injuries to ancillary workers shows sharps bins are not a fully effective repository for used sharps. It is important when dealing with specific risks (such as potentially contaminated needle waste) that such items are NOT mixed with other waste types, but disposed of in specialised safety systems immediately after use.
Because of the open nature of sharps bins, non-sharps waste is also deposited. They become ‘general bins’ for tissues, plastics and other medical waste. A report published in the British Medical Journal states that research sows that only 4% of Sharps bin waste are sharps4. This happens because it is easy and convenient to dispose of such items in open containers. As they are used in this way – and because needles are also deposited, significant risks to Needle stick injury are present to users. The large openings designed into sharps bins allow a user to place hands and fingers directly into the container where sharps risks are present. Similarly, it is possible to incorrectly discard a needle so that it remains protruding from the bin. As the presence of a needle is difficult to see from even short distances, it is evident that such devices fail to protect medical workers and ancillary staff from Needle stick injury.
Allowing mixing of waste types is dangerous to workers but also commercially inefficient. Non-sharps fill the bins very quickly rather than being disposed of using more cost effective approved clinical waste methods.
The high prevalence of needle stick injuries identified in the study period 2012-2017, the associated long term health effects on healthcare workers and significant cost to the NHS shows that a specific needle based disposal method is required as a more effective alternative to the current, general open-type sharps bin is required.
Needledock – The solution
In response to the problem posed by sharps disposal we have developed the Needledock system. This is a simple spring-based mechanism incorporated into a closed container. After injecting the patient, the clinician ‘docks’ the syringe/needle into the mechanism and the needle is safely removed. This immediately prevents the need for any further handing or secondary disposal. Unlike current sharps bins, where used syringes can be put in upside down, and which have a relatively large opening out of which used syringes can escape and fingers and hands can enter, the needle dock has only a small hole and the needle can only be put in, in one direction. Crucially, the container itself is ready sealed and does not require a large opening through which to receive syringes that is only closed once the container is full. The plastic syringe body itself can be disposed of as non-sharp clinical waste.
Removing the needle in a specialised docking system also enables another significant cost saving for the NHS. When examining the contents of open sharps bins, we identified that the randomness of disposing of full syringe/needle assemblies resulted in poor space utilisation in the bin. Because Needledock removes and safely stores the needle only, much better space utilisation can be achieved. The result of this is that the NHS can significantly reduce the expenditure on the overall number of sharps bins purchased and additionally, reduce the expenditure on collection and incineration services.
- Royal College of Nursing report “Needlestick injury in 2008”
- United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention https://www.cdc.gov/sharpssafety/index.html
- United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention https://www.cdc.gov/sharpssafety/index.html
- NHS Resolution “Did you know? Preventing Needlestick injuries” May 2017
- BMJ 2009;338:b609 “Coming round to recycling” 11 March 2009