Recently being a widespread concern around in Alberta, a hospital in Lloydminister, Saskatchewan has been reusing syringes. Dr. Moira McKinnon, the province's chief medical health officer, confirmed that Lloydminister Hospital has been reusing syringes to inject medication into intravenous lines. Lloydminister Hospital serves both patients from Alberta and Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health has launched an investigation, searching if other health regions are reusing syringes. The province's Ministry of Health is not sure how long this practice has been going on, nor can they say how many patients may be at risk. Dr. McKinnon expressed that the risk of this practice is extremely low and experts are searching for further details of the risk. As the chief medical health officer, Dr. McKinnon has issued a cautionary alert to the province's health regions about reusing syringes.
Opinion: Regardless of the risk factor, I believe that reusing syringes is unhygienic and a practice which hospitals should not be doing. How do patients have full trust in hospitals if they can't even follow instructions as simple as not reusing syringes. Though the needle is being penetrated through an IV line, there is still a theoretical risk where there can be a back flow of blood. Depending on the patients medical status, this can be very dangerous.
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