According to a report by the French Society of Hospital Hygiene, ultrasound probes, used four million times a year, have a level of hygiene that is too low. A worrying situation. The associations are awaiting a response from the government.
Ultrasound has become indispensable in many fields of medicine. Obviously in pregnant women, but also to explore deep in our belly, our vessels or our heart. It is therefore essential to take an interest in reliability in all aspects of the equipment used.
Four million medical acts concerned
A report by the French Society for Hospital Hygiene (SF2H), commissioned in April 2017 by Marisol Touraine, then Minister of Health, deplores the lack of hygiene of ultrasound probes. A lack firstly due to the regulations, which do not impose any disinfection between two patients! This only provides for intermediate level disinfection (DNI), i.e. one disinfection per day.
More specifically, it is the lack of hygiene of endocavitary ultrasounds between two patients that is singled out by SF2H professionals. These medical acts, performed four million times a year, concern vaginal ultrasounds for monitoring pregnancy, diagnosis of diseases of the ovary, endometrium and uterus. But also, in men, rectal ultrasound monitoring of the prostate or bladder.
A possible health scandal
“Can France remain the only country which officially displays a lower level probe treatment objective than all those recommended at international and European level?” worry the professionals in the report, led by the president of the SF2H, doctor Pierre Parnaix. “Our system is a global inconsistency, we are 20 years behind,” he laments.
This warning cry from hygiene professionals has not yet found an echo on the correlation between the lack of disinfection and the transmission of viruses. But the question arises. “This arises in particular for the papillomavirus. Today, there is no proven link between care and contamination”, insists doctor Pierre Parnaix. “But if one day a correlation is made and we don’t have the right level of security, we will be in a health scandal. The risk is low, but it must be zero.”
“It is simply unacceptable”
These conclusions have provoked the anger of health associations who are protesting against this flagrant lack of hygiene. “The Parnaix report is clear, so that we are done with it”, pleads Alain-Michel Ceretti, the president of France Assos Santé which brings together 85 health associations. “It is not a question of switching to systematic disinfection, but of switching back to it, because it was compulsory before 2007! And then there were compromises, which are in fact compromises for the patients. How accepting that a wipe is the norm? That’s simply unacceptable.”
If this report has just become public, the Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, received it on her desk last June. Since then, no decision has been made. “Four months have passed without an announcement. In the meantime, nearly 1.3 million acts have been performed. Any expectation is to the detriment of patient safety. The Minister must whistle the end of recess”, explains Alain-Michel Ceretti.
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