Friday, August 30, 2013

Nearly 2500 Colposcopy Patients Will Get A Letter

Nearly 2,500 patients will be notified following Horizon Health's discovery that unsterilized biopsy forceps were used at a hospital clinic for 14 years.

    The problem at a colposcopy clinic at the Miramichi Regional Hospital began in 1999 and was discovered this May.


  CEO John McGarry says the biopsy forceps were only cleaned and disinfected before being reused but sterilized at the end of the day.
 

   McGarry advises there is an extremely low risk of infection, but 2,497 patients who had these biopsies are being sent letters to advise them to have blood tests for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.