REGINA - Saskatchewan public health officials tried to ease the fears of patients across the province Thursday after learning that at least one health region has been reusing syringes during surgical operations.
Dr. Moira McKinnon, Saskatchewan's chief medical officer, said the hospital involved is in Lloydminster, just east of the Alberta boundary. McKinnon said the government is still trying to determine how many patients may be affected, but she said there are no plans to test people for hepatitis and HIV.
"The risk, as I said, is extremely low and we've got experts working on exactly what that risk is," said McKinnon.
"We will move to testing if that's necessary, if the risk shows that that's necessary."
McKinnon said practitioners at the Lloydminster hospital, which serves residents from both Saskatchewan and Alberta, came forward Wednesday after a dirty-syringe scare in Alberta.
The Alberta government suggested Thursday that a doctor who treats patients in the Lloydminster area on the Alberta side of the boundary has been reusing syringes.
"We know that a physician who practises in the Lloydminster and Vermilion hospitals has been administering multiple doses of medication through IV lines to multiple patients," Alberta Health said in a release. Department officials were not available for comment.
On Monday, Alberta announced that up to 2,700 patients will be tested for hepatitis and HIV after syringes were reused at a health clinic in High Prairie, 260 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
The province said it learned nurses at the High Prairie Health Complex had been routinely injecting drugs into patients' intravenous lines with the same syringe.
A fresh syringe is supposed to be used each time to avoid any blood-borne diseases from one patient being accidentally injected into the bloodstream of another.
"I think they were afraid of the situation in Alberta and they are testing," said McKinnon.
"But since that incident they've ... put an expert committee together and looked at the risk and again they've determined that the risk is very low."
McKinnon said the syringes in question were used in intravenous bags in Lloydminster.
"You're not actually penetrating the patient, you're only putting it into a tube that follows down to the patient's arm. There is a theoretical risk that there can be some back flow of that blood and contamination, but it's a theoretical risk only," she explained.
Since 2001, the Center for Disease Control in the U.S. has identified several hepatitis C outbreaks associated with syringe reuse. Syringe reuse was common practice in the 1990s but was phased out when the outbreaks started.
McKinnon said the Saskatchewan government is also looking at whether syringes have been reused in other parts of the province. The Ministry of Health has advised all health regions to ensure that syringes are discarded after one use.
