10 years of the EU Directive 2010/32/EU – Prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and healthcare sector

EU directive 2010/32/EU, concerning the prevention of sharps injuries

The EU directive 2010/32/EU, concerning the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and healthcare sector, was signed on May 10, 2010, by EU social partners HOSPEEM and the EPSU. The purpose of the EU directive was to implement the framework to:

Prevent workers’ injuries caused by all medical sharps (including needlesticks)
Protect workers at risk
Set up an integrated approach towards establishing policies in risk assessment, risk prevention, training, information, awareness-raising and monitoring.¹

The EU member states were required to enact laws and make provisions to comply with this directive by May 11, 2013.¹ However, for many countries this happened much later.

On July 17, 2019, the EU Directive 2010/32/EU celebrated its tenth anniversary.

On this occasion, HOSPEEM (The European Hospital and Healthcare Employers Association) released a follow up of the directive 2010/32/EU.² This followed the Final Report of November 15, 2013 that was based on a HOSPEEM-EPSU (European Public Service Union) affiliates survey that included 25 country reports on the implementation of the Directive.³

The 2019 report was based on documents provided by 18 HOSPEEM members and EPSU affiliates on the national transposition of the directive.³ According to the 2019 report, the practical implementation of the directive was seen as ‘problematic’ by many respondents, in particular, because of the elimination, prevention and protection, lack of reporting and risk assessment.⁴ A majority of the respondents were also unaware of any recent follow-up activity, reports or assessments made by national governments.³ However, most respondents did note an increased purchase and use of safety devices and awareness-raising campaigns.

The national social partners surveyed desired the following future initiatives:

Standardisation of registration, reporting and follow-up systems of injuries with medical sharps
Appropriate training and education of healthcare professionals on policies and procedures associated with sharps injuries
Information and awareness-raising measures on an institutional and political level
Transition and access to medical devices incorporating sharps protection mechanisms
Implementation of risk assessment initiatives.^{3, 4}

Other recommendations made included informing staff about training entitlements and responsibilities, in addition to the need of working with staff who are potentially exposed to needlestick injuries within the context of national legal obligations.

Read the short and long forms of the HOSPEEM follow-up report by accessing the links here