Glenis Willmott has welcomed an agreement between health bosses and trades unions.  The agreement, approved by MEPs this week in Brussels, is aimed at reducing the alarming rate of needle-stick accidents in hospitals and other institutions. 

The Labour MEP for the East Midlands explained that a report presented to the all-party Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament estimates that there are up to a million such accidents across the European Union every year.

She said.  "These accidents can be life threatening, bringing risks of infecting people with viruses such as hepatitis B or C or HIV.  However, needle stick incidents can be avoided if hospital staff are well trained and have safe equipment.”

“Labour MEPs have been arguing for many years for EU legislation on the matter, and I included it in the Report I took through the European Parliament last year on Health & Safety.

“Unfortunately, while health professionals are very aware of the issue, the general public has very little knowledge of the scale of this potentially deadly problem.   It is good news, therefore, that this framework agreement approved this week is a good basis for future work."

29 January 2010