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Kevin Bissett, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Published Wednesday, August 28, 2013
12:13PM ADT
Last Updated Wednesday, August 28,
2013 6:46PM ADT
FREDERICTON -- Health officials in
New Brunswick are urging nearly
2,500 patients to get tested for
hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV
after discovering that unsterilized
biopsy forceps were used at a
hospital clinic for 14 years.
The problem at a colposcopy clinic
at the Miramichi Regional Hospital
began in May 1999 and was detected
on May 24 of this year, the
province's Horizon Health Network
said Wednesday.
"I on behalf of everyone at Horizon
apologize for this error and the
resulting apprehension this may
cause our patients," said John
McGarry, the CEO of the Horizon
Health Network.7
Miramichi hospital New Brunswick
health officials are contacting
nearly 2,500 patients after
discovering that unsterilized biopsy
forceps were used at the Miramichi
Regional Hospital for 14 years. (CTV
Atlantic)
"While I firmly believe that
disclosing this information is the
right thing to do, I cannot
underscore strongly enough that the
risk of infection to any of our
patients is extremely low."
McGarry said the problem began when
the clinic started reusing biopsy
forceps without sterilizing them in
order to handle a growing patient
load. While all of the biopsy
forceps were sterilized at the end
of every day, during the day some
forceps were only cleaned and
disinfected before being reused, he
said.
"If there were eight patients in the
day, chances are the first five
patients received sterilized
instruments from the night before,
but the next three would have had
reprocessed instruments that
occurred during the day," McGarry
told a news conference in Miramichi.
McGarry said it took three months to
notify the public about the problem
because the health authority had to
first ensure that proper
sterilization procedures were in
place at other hospitals in the
province as well as determine the
risk of infection.
"We wanted to check into what is the
risk, what is the advice from the
experts, what is the situation
across the country regarding
disclosure, because we understand it
causes a lot of apprehension," he
said.
"It took us a couple of months to
come to that conclusion that we
should disclose and inform all of
the patients and give them the right
to have a test to reassure
themselves."
He said 2,497 women who had
colposcopy biopsies are being sent
letters advising them to have blood
tests for hepatitis B, hepatitis C
and HIV. Colposcopies are procedures
to examine the cervix, vagina and
vulva to detect cervical cancer.
Dr. Gordon Dow, an infectious
disease consultant from the Moncton
Hospital, said the chance of anyone
contracting a virus from the
unsterilized instruments is "very
small" because the clinic was
performing the disinfection
procedure properly.
"Patients who have undergone
colposcopy biopsies at the Miramichi
Regional Hospital can be assured
that even without sterilization,
proper initial cleaning of the
instrument reduces the concentration
of microbes by over 99.99 per cent,"
Dow told the news conference.
Still, Dow said sterilization is the
accepted procedure and that was not
always followed.
But Dow said he is confident not a
single case of infection will be
detected as a result of the
unsterilized forceps. He said while
he expects blood tests to show that
some patients have infections of
hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV,
that would be due to the prevalence
of those diseases among the general
population.
"If you look at these viruses among
adults in Canada, the prevalence of
HIV is 0.1 per cent in the general
population, hepatitis C is 0.8 per
cent, and hepatitis B is probably
about 0.5 per cent in our part of
the world," Dow said.
Health Minister Hugh Flemming said
McGarry only notified him of the
problem three weeks ago. Flemming
said McGarry told him that a health
employee who was temporarily filling
in at the clinic discovered the
issue.
"This person, quite properly,
brought it to the attention of the
supervisor and explained how they
thought it should be done," Flemming
said. "From that moment on that
instrument was sterilized."
Flemming said he is satisfied with
how the health board has handled the
matter, but he added that there
needs to be a stronger system of
checks and balances to ensure such
problems don't happen again.
"We have to go beyond just this one
incident to see if there are other
kinds of issues, whether it is
systemic or any kinds of issues like
that," Flemming said.
Liberal health critic Donald
Arseneault said the priority now
should be to ensure all patients are
notified and given assurances about
their health.
"Let's deal with it and we'll have
some questions later on how this has
gone on for so long," Arseneault
said.
.
Read more:
http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/women-warned-of-infection-risk-at-miramichi-hospital-clinic-1.1430081#ixzz2deuyn2E1 |
