Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-11-Speech-4-019"
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"en.20100211.3.4-019"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I too will share a personal experience. I have been working in hospitals for 15 years, and for a time I was in fact a healthcare worker in a critical area: the operating theatre.
I myself have been pricked by potentially infectious needles and instruments. Therefore, as Mrs Rapti was saying, I can still remember the anxiety I felt when awaiting my test results, but above all how I went through the so-called ‘window period’ between the potential contamination and the hypothetical outbreak of disease.
Precisely because of this experience, I believe that we must vote in favour of this resolution, which finally gives legal force to the agreement in safety and protection terms by establishing minimum standards for all healthcare workers.
The healthcare sector accounts for 10% of the European Union’s labour force and, to be more precise, there are an estimated 1.2 million cases of accidental sharp injuries each year, with the result that healthcare workers gradually become demotivated and very often leave the healthcare profession. Moreover, the World Health Organisation estimates that 2.5% of cases may seroconvert to HIV and in 40% of cases to various forms of hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
Precisely because of the numerous serious risks that are presented all too often on a daily basis, the healthcare profession is considered unattractive, so much so that it has suffered from a shortage of staff in recent years. Moreover, as has already been mentioned here, the cost for the individual healthcare services that have to deal with the stressful situations to which healthcare workers are subjected during the various monitoring periods, and of the diagnostic tests which, as a protocol, last for at least six months from the time of the accident, is considerable, and then there are the costs associated with the professionals who have unfortunately contracted the disease.
To conclude, in order not to underestimate the problem, when the risk of an accident can be avoided or reduced, it is necessary and right to take every preventive measure available. In particular, it is the employer’s duty to introduce these measures, and it is the worker’s duty to comply with them."@en1
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