Needle-safe rules safer still in Germany:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Germany's technical regulation for biological materials, the so-called TRBA 250, has been strengthened again in a bid to provide maximum safety to staff who are exposed to needlestick injuries. The regulation has so far allowed employers to keep non-needle safe devices in circulation, provided that their other working practices guaranteed a minimisation of the risk of a sharps injury (see Clinica No 1266, p 6). Now, and with obvious implications for providers of autodisable devices, the federal workers' protection and medical staff institute (BAA) has decided that only safe devices can be used - except in patients who have a known negative disease status and from whom no blood-borne disease can be contracted. The view of the German accident insurance group (DGU) is that even routine blood draws should be done with needle-safe devices, obviating the need for hospitals to carry two device types.