A UK National Blood and Body fluid Exposure Annual Survey
The Safer Healthcare and Biosafety Network is strongly supporting the establishment of a new annual UK national database of blood & body fluid exposures (BBFE) in healthcare personnel (HCP).
Together with Professor Terry Grimmond and Dr Kevin Hambridge we are asking for your support, where relevant, for contact details of occupational health managers (OHM) in healthcare in order to get the best data set for the survey.
The 2021 Royal College of Nursing Report on blood & body fluid exposures (BBFE) revealed an alarmingly high incidence of both sharps injuries and mucocutaneous exposures, however UK has no national BBFE database from which to draw conclusions re trends and Covid impact.
NHS England, Patient Safety Learning and four major OH and safety associations agree that a publicly available, high-level national BBFE annual survey is needed for national and healthcare facility BBFE benchmarking.
Dr Kevin Hambridge (Plymouth University) and Professor Terry Grimmond, two international BBFE researchers, are co-leading the BBFE Working Group, with the 2019 & 2020 BBFE survey occurring mid-2022.
The proposal
- Compile contact details of occupational health managers (OHM) at all UK health facilities.
- Forward 1-page, 12 question, Survey Monkey-based questionnaire directly to all OHM.
- Strictly anonymous survey – no facility name will be used or mentioned in any manner.
- Survey results to be published in a peer-reviewed open-access journal annually.
We would like your help to gather OHM contact details by emailing Ian Lindsley at ian.lindsley@shbn.org.uk with the name, title, email address and facility name of your OHM – or kindly forward this request to her/him.
These details will not be shared with anyone – they are strictly for the BBFE survey.
For further information, please contact Dr Hambridge kevin.hambridge@plymouth.ac.uk or Professor Terry Grimmond terry@terrygrimmond.com.
Thank you for helping us create a safer workplace for all HCP
