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stered by the Leyton Health Area Sub-Committee. The advantages over the previous
practice of boiling in the clinics are: -
(a) it provides with assurance against the risk of using unsterile
syringes;
(b) it provides a clean, dry sterile syringe and needle for each
inj ection;
(c) it provides the staff and patients with sharp needles;
(d) it relieves doctors and nurses of time-consuming tasks at
periods when they are hard pressed;
(e) it allows greater flexibility of programming for immunisation
sessions.
Disposable sterile syringes and needles are now becoming available, and one
naturally must consider their relative merits. It would appear that there can be little
to choose between a disposable syringe and needle and one from the central syringe unit.
Each provides a safe sterile syringe and needle.
Other factors will however require consideration in relation to local factors:-
(a) Disposal:-
the actual disposal of large numbers of used syringes
and needles may produce problems.
(b) Transport:-
In geographically compact Health Area(s) where
transport facilities to clinics, etc. already exist
the transport of needles and syringes from a central
syringe unit does not present any problems.
In a larger and perhaps rural area however, transport could be a
serious difficulty in operating a central syringe unit and disposal
syringes which can be sent by the postal service would have great
advantages.
(c) Cost:-
At the moment the running cost of the central syringe
unit is approximately 2d per syringe compared with
about 6d per disposable syringe. The cost of the disposable
syringe may however, be reduced if production
and their distribution increases.
It would seem that these are at least some of the factors which authorities not
already providing sterile syringes and needles will have to consider where developing
their own services in this respect.
At the moment of writing consideration is being given to providing some neighbouring
parts of Essex County Council's Health Services with sterile needles and syringes
from the Leyton Central Syringe Unit.
(69)