Fed: Hospitals to recycle equipment

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Fed: Hospitals to recycle equipment

BRISBANE, April 12 AAP - The Howard government will reportedly allow hospitals to recyclemedical devices marked "single-use only" despite the potentially higher risk of infectionfor patients.

The Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council has agreed to regulate the controversialpractice, which is banned by many hospitals but used in 15 per cent of Queensland Healthfacilities, Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper reported today.

The practice has been the subject of intense legal and ethical debate since 1994 whenfour Sydney women contracted AIDS after an anaesthetic device was re-used without beingproperly sterilised.

But the council's decision to condone the practice will be accepted by federal healthminister Kay Patterson along with her state and territory counterparts because banningre-use would cost an extra $100 million a year, the paper said.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws show re-use of catheters in Queenslandhas doubled since 1997, when the National Health and Medical Research Council demandedre-use be banned if health ministers did not agree on tough regulations, the paper reported.

Health ministers noted the NHMRC recommendations, but took no action until six weeksago when it privately agreed to new regulations, the paper said.

AAP nr/rs

KEYWORD: INFECT