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More than 1.5 millioninjections dispensed last year

Feb 28, 2010 News

About 70 percent of the injections utilised globally have been found to be unnecessary thus every effort must be made by health officials to engage this course of action only when it is essential.
Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, made this observation recently when he commented on the local use of injections. According to him, for last year alone, more than 1.5 million injections were dispensed in a country that is home to a mere 760,000 people.
And the need to reduce the use of injections is crucial as there is always a small risk involved in this activity, the Minister admitted.
“We injected people, whether with medicine like insulin or to draw blood for laboratory tests or for transfusion…Whether it is being done by experience people medical interventions are never without a slight risk. Some are more risky but there is always a risk therefore if you don’t have to do it, don’t do it.”
And the process of reduced injections must start at the level of the doctors who should seek to consider more carefully the forms of drugs that are prescribed to patients. However this need for intervention has to some extent been compromised due to certain misconceived beliefs.
“I was told that the problem in Guyana was that if they (doctors) don’t give injections the patients don’t believe they are getting the right treatment.
Our survey shows that, that is not exactly so. That is a myth that has spread overtime and has made people believe in that but it is not necessarily so.”
Citing some of the actual risks involved in the use of injections, the Minister said that almost 300,000 people in the world last year became infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) from contaminated injection needles or from injuries from sharps. Hepatitis B and C as well as other types of infections have also been contracted because of injections, he disclosed.
As a result, he noted that it is therefore incumbent on the local professionals to ensure that injections are utilised when they are absolutely necessary.
But even when this approach is engaged there is still the crucial need to store, distribute and prescribe medications in a proper and safe manner.
“From the pharmacist providing the medication to the nurses, doctors or medexes administering it, things must be done in the proper manner…right down to the discarding of the needles, gloves and so.”
The cycle continues all the way to the cleaners of health facilities the Minister underscored even as he cautioned that the process does not end until it is safely discarded so that persons do not come into contact with it and be injured.
And the efforts that have so far been demonstrated by the health sector have proven to be exceptional, the minister added.
“I am proud of the work that we have done in the health sector. Long gone are the days when we just discarded things all over the place.”
The Minister’s extensive remarks came during a ceremony last week to mark the official hand over of the Guyana Safe Injection Project (GSIP) to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
According to the Minister, Chief Executive Officer of GPHC, Mr Michael Khan, and other staffers of the institutions have the responsibility for proper waste management therefore they must manage sharps until they are handed over to the care of waste handlers who are tasked with carefully disposing them.

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