Inoculation Injury (Trust Employees Only)

Inoculation Injury (Trust Employees Only)

You have had an accident involving a patient’s blood or body fluid. This could affect your health. The Trust has put in place a system to make sure the risk to you is minimized. This leaflet describes what you must do, and what will happen over the next few weeks.

• By the time you are reading this leaflet, you will have already washed the area with lots of running water and applied a dressing if applicable. DO NOT suck the area.
• Tell your line manager/ supervisor immediately.
• Complete an Incident Report Form on line at http://inttranet/datix.asp .
• Make sure a specimen of blood is collected from you either by Occupational health or, if out of hours, by A/E for storage in the laboratory, in case it is needed later.
• Contact Occupational Health (Outside Direct Dial: (01905) 760694 or Internal Extensions:  33650, 33651, 33652 and 33653 or email [email protected])

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

Your manager will make arrangements to trace the patient whose blood or body fluid has caused the contamination incident. The patient (the source) will then be investigated.

IF THE SOURCE IS KNOWN

• The source will be tested and you will be informed of the need for any further investigation of yourself. If the source is negative, nothing more need happen.
• If the source is positive for any blood borne virus, Occupational Health will arrange to investigate you further and refer you for appropriate advice
• Remember that, as a healthcare worker, you will already have been offered immunization against Hepatitis B. Your immunisation status will be known.

IF THE SOURCE IS UNKNOWN

• You will be offered follow up for 6 months for a range of blood borne viruses through Occupational Health. It is however your responsibility to ensure that Occupational Health have up-to–date contact details, and to keep your appointments.

WHAT ABOUT HIV?

If the source is known and thought to be at risk of being HIV positive, you may be advised to take some protective tablets (PEP) for up to a month, depending on the degree of risk and the time interval between the incident and the treatment. This will be discussed in full with you at the time.

REMEMBER

Blood borne viruses are a significant risk to health. The chance that you will acquire one as a result of this incident is small but not negligible. You can help yourself by keeping in touch with Occupational Health and acting on their recommendations.

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