China's first occupational exposure protection regulations for medical personnel came into effect on December 1:


　　Can be included in work injury is the highlight Interns are also protected


　　On October 28, the "Several Regulations on Occupational Exposure Protection of Medical and Health Personnel in the Xiamen Special Economic Zone" (hereinafter referred to as the "Several Regulations") was passed by the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sixteenth National People's Congress of Xiamen City, starting from December 1, 2022 implement.

　　This regulation is the first special regulation on occupational exposure of medical personnel in the country. It makes detailed regulations on occupational exposure training, employee physical examination, emergency response, etc., and aims to establish a sound prevention and treatment system for occupational exposure.

　　Previously, due to the lack of relevant legal provisions, it was difficult for some domestic medical personnel to receive adequate relief after occupational exposure, which caused damage to the personal rights and physical and mental health of medical personnel.

　　The article "Investigation and Analysis of Occupational Exposure and Protection of Chinese Medical Staff" published in 2016 stated that many hospitals, scientific research institutions and researchers across the country investigated the occupational exposure of 158 hospitals of different levels in 13 provinces across the country. The results showed that, A total of 11116 cases of occupational exposure occurred.

Sharps injuries accounted for 96.76% of all types of occupational exposures; in the occupational distribution of occupational exposures, nurses accounted for 53.90% and doctors accounted for 21.31%; occupational exposures were mainly from general wards, operating rooms, and intensive care units; The equipment that causes occupational exposure of medical staff is mainly syringes, scalp needles, surgical needles, etc. High-risk operations include intravenous injection, needles thrown into sharps boxes, surgical needles, blood collection, and needle cap replacement.

　　How to protect medical staff?

How to define rights and responsibilities after exposure?

Who will help medical staff solve the psychological "shadow"?

　　Clarify the scope of responsibility of all parties involved in occupational exposure protection

　　Professor Wang Yue, a well-known health law expert in my country and vice president of Peking University's School of Medical Humanities, is one of the participants in the "Several Regulations".

Wang Yue said that the research team used the survey results of the Xiamen Nursing Association on the occupational exposure status of medical staff in Xiamen within 3 months of 2018 as an important legislative basis. A total of 11,201 medical staff from 13 tertiary public hospitals in Xiamen accepted anonymous questionnaires. investigation.

The results showed that 916 of them had needlestick injuries, the incidence rate was 8.18%, which shows the severity of occupational exposure in Xiamen.

　　Wang Yue believes that the main feature of the "Several Regulations" is to clarify the scope of responsibility of all parties involved in occupational exposure protection, and to ensure that the protection and disposal of occupational exposure in medical and health facilities can be legally followed and effective in terms of human, financial and material aspects. The law must be followed.

　　First of all, Article 3 of the "Several Provisions" stipulates that "the health authority is responsible for formulating and improving occupational exposure protection related systems, guiding and supervising medical and health institutions to perform occupational exposure protection obligations, and coordinating to solve major problems in occupational exposure protection."

　　Article 4 stipulates that "the main person in charge of the medical and health institution shall be fully responsible for the occupational exposure protection work of the unit".

In addition, Articles 3 and 4 both refer to "establishing a system" and "guaranteeing funds and manpower".

Wang Yue explained that each subject performs its own duties, there is a unified leadership organization and the main responsible unit outside, and the first person in charge of overall planning inside, so that "every inch of land is guarded, and every thing is managed."

Regarding the issue of under-reporting, Articles 9 and 15 of the "Several Regulations" make it clear that medical institutions must earnestly fulfill their obligations in reporting occupational exposure events.

　　Wang Yue said that this legislation divides the main part of the occupational exposure protection of medical and health personnel into three linked units before, during and after the event, including the construction of occupational safety prevention system, post-exposure emergency treatment, and the reporting mechanism of exposure events. , each part can be subdivided.

　　For example, the occupational safety prevention system consists of pre-job safety training, emergency response plans (occupational exposure monitoring, hidden danger investigation, etc.), specifying specialized departments and full-time personnel for emergency response, providing protective materials, and ensuring the investment of special funds.

For example, Paragraph 1 of Article 9 of the "Several Provisions" establishes the "occupational exposure emergency response plan" and the "specialized emergency response department or personnel" system.

Using full-time personnel to be responsible for the contingency plan can ensure that there are "clear people" who know "how to respond in a timely manner", so as to minimize the injuries of medical personnel in the first time.

　　As another example, in the post-exposure emergency response, "timely organization of inspections", "right to transfer jobs under occupational exposure risks", and "psychological counseling by medical institutions" have established a post-exposure emergency response system from various aspects, so as to protect victims of health occupational exposure The timeliness and effectiveness of treatment.

　　Internships, trainees, trainees

　　Also included in the legislation to protect the population

　　In addition, Article 18 of the "Several Provisions" clearly states that those who are interns, trainees, and trained in medical and health institutions are also included in the legislative protection groups.

　　Wang Yue explained that although there is no labor relationship between this group of people and medical institutions, the occupational exposure risks they face are the same as regular employees.

Secondly, the administrative management and security staff of medical and health institutions are also included in the legislative protection group because the definition of medical and health personnel cannot cover them, and they also have the risk of occupational exposure during their work. A separate declarative provision has been made in the legislation.

　　Does this legislation include occupational exposure in the identification of work-related injuries?

According to Wang Yue, the "Several Regulations" include occupational exposure situations that meet the statutory conditions for identification of work-related injuries into the category of work-related injury identification.

　　According to Article 14 of the "Regulations on Work-related Injury Insurance", the conditions for determining a work-related injury include "being injured by an accident due to work reasons" and "suffering from an occupational disease".

Although the "Classification and Catalog of Occupational Diseases" only includes AIDS in the category of occupational infectious diseases, and implements a catalog management system for the identification of occupational diseases, if medical personnel are infected with occupational infectious diseases other than the occupational infectious diseases listed in the "Classification and Catalog of Occupational Diseases" due to job behavior In the case of infectious diseases, medical personnel can still be identified as work-related injuries according to the path of "accident injury due to work reasons".

　　There are also some minor highlights in this legislation.

Article 11 of the "Several Provisions" states that "Medical and health institutions shall include hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis, AIDS and other testing items in the optional scope of their regular health examinations according to the needs of their jobs; Vaccine services. The required expenses shall be borne by the medical and health institutions. The types of jobs with higher occupational exposure risks and the scope of vaccinations shall be determined and announced by the municipal health department.”

　　Wang Yue said that there is still a lot of room for improvement in the flu vaccination rate of medical staff in my country. According to this regulation, medical institutions should vaccinate medical staff free of charge during the flu season. Welfare, in terms of patient safety, is another responsibility."

　　Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter Song Xinze Lanjing intern Wu Yiyang