Cllr Shazna Muzammil calls on every NHS trust to review how staff are protected from hazardous medicinal products, such as chemotherapy drugs
Milton Keynes City Councillor Shazna Muzammil has called for stronger protections for healthcare workers who handle hazardous medicinal products (HMPs). She was the headline speaker at the Safer Healthcare and Biosafety Network (SHBN) conference, hosted by the Royal College of Physicians in London on 6 November, where she addressed more than 100 healthcare leaders.
Cllr Muzammil represents Tattenhoe ward, leads the opposition on Milton Keynes City Council and is a Council Governor of Milton Keynes University Hospital. Drawing on evidence shared, she highlighted that some medicines used to treat patients can put the staff who prepare and give them at risk, including risks to fertility, pregnancy and unborn children. She said this matters all the more because the healthcare workforce is mostly female, and many staff are of childbearing age.
Speaking at the conference, Cllr Muzammil said:
“We spend so much time making sure our patients are safe. But are we doing enough to protect the people looking after them? A medicine that could save a patient’s life may also present a risk to the person administering it if the right protections aren’t in place.”
She highlighted concerns raised that staff across the NHS feel they are not protected to the same standard, and that the gap may grow as more care moves out of hospitals and into the community:
“Right now, the protection you get can depend on which trust you work in, which ward, even which shift you happen to be on. That’s a postcode lottery, and when it comes to people’s health, and their families’ health, it shouldn’t be left to chance.”
Cllr Muzammil said national healthcare reforms are moving more treatment out of hospitals and into the community. In Milton Keynes, services are now planned across the much larger Central East Integrated Care Board area, covering around 3.5 million people. As a result, local leaders have a growing responsibility to make sure protections for staff keep pace. When treatment is given at home, she noted, the risk of exposure can reach partners, parents and children as well as the healthcare worker.
“If we’re moving care out of hospitals and into communities, we need to make sure the right safeguards move with it. As councillors, we may not be responsible for managing NHS workplace safety, but we can raise questions, bring people together and make sure the right conversations are happening.”
Cllr Muzammil has welcomed the opportunity to learn more about safeguards already in place, what more needs to be done and will be sharing some of the important discussions from this conference with Milton Keynes University Hospital in her role as governor. She is urging every hospital trust to review and strengthen its procedures for protecting staff from HMPs, and has encouraged healthcare workers to ask their employers four questions:
- What is our procedure for handling hazardous medicinal products?
- Who owns it, and at what level of leadership?
- Is there a standard risk assessment, so protection does not depend on postcode?
- Do staff have the right equipment to protect themselves, including at source?
She added:
“The people who care for us deserve more than our gratitude. They deserve to know that while they’re looking after us, someone is looking after them.”
