waiting, page-3

Gee, thats a hard one to answer tektron, as I'm not a Business Analyst!!!

I was reading an old article from the Australian Medical Journal, about needlestick injuries, from 2002.

The opinion was that a retractable syringe in general ward use, would cost 65 cents.

The article was basically about the cost/benefit analysis of safety syringes vs doing nothing.

Unfortunately, I was the victim of a needlestick injury whilst working in the Operating Theatre of a major Sydney hospital in the mid 1990s.

At that time I was working as an Anaesthetic Nurse.

I was in a hurry, cleaning up between cases, and pricked myself on a dirty needle that was sticking out of an overfull yellow sharps container.

I had to go through the drama of blood tests, and waiting for three months to see if I had Sero-converted re: HepC or HIV. Not a pleasant experience.

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I know from working in the NSW Public Hospital system, that the benefits of Safety Syringes would well outweigh the costs of their use.

I would base this on: decreased workers comp premiums, reduced stress on staff working in high risk areas, as well as the duty of care of the employer towards the employee, (in a legal sense).

Sorry I can't give you any figures, but maybe if one of our fellow posters has any ideas, they maybe able to help.

Any opinions would be pure conjecture of course, as the details of the agreements haven't yet been made public!

Regards,

dino