alt Hacker NewsThis is common practice in much of developed world. Long ago, they used to have re-usable glass syringes that could be sterilized. Unfortunately, people switched to disposable syringes. The unit costs are...high in the US, unreasonable in developing countries.
It's not just this hospital, it's widespread ([1] report 38%)
[1] https://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-26-2020/volume-26-issue...
Replies
> This is common practice in much of developed world.
Do you mean "developing?" This is not common practice in rich Western countries.
Additionally, as sibling has already pointed out, sterile disposable syringes are extremely cheap.
The reason we switched is because it's cheaper (including the logistics overhead costs). Sterilization and transport isn't free
A quick search found a pack of 100 disposable syringes in Pakistan for PKR 1100/- which is less than USD 4.
That's 4 cents per syringe. Seems quite reasonable to me. Seems they don't have economics as an excuse.
https://ailaaj.pk/products/apple-disposable-syringe-5ml-100s
> The unit costs are...high in the US
So many products are bundled into purchase agreements at hospitals that you can't, in general, sensibly talk about per-unit costs.
[flagged]
1. They're talking about the current situation, but you're bringing up history. 2. Given the lessons from the past, why would you still want to do something this dangerous?
That article also makes it seem like patients in Pakistan are receiving what seems to me like a wildly high number of injections:
> An injection was provided during 53% of patient visits in Rawalpindi and 92% in Tando Allah Yar
> Patients from Tando Allah Yar reported a mean 3.8 visits to a healthcare provider by a member of their household during the previous month, compared to 2.5 by those from Rawalpindi (Table 2). During all such visits, an injection was given. Overall, 56% patients felt that an injection was necessary. Such perceptions were higher in Tando Allah Yar than in Rawalpindi (79% vs. 39%) (Table 2). Providers reciprocated such perceptions in that 44–56% of providers felt that an injection was required for common ailments such as fever, influenza, body aches or diarrhoea.
> Patients expect to receive injections for minor ailments such as fever or influenza-like symptoms and willingly pay for these, on the mistaken belief in the efficacy of injections to overcome common symptoms that eventually abate with time (10). Healthcare providers comply with such wishes and are convinced of the necessity of injections.
> We have previously demonstrated that the total national supply of syringes in Pakistan is sufficient to meet the demand for the ~1.1 billion syringes used annually for immunization, diabetes, laboratory testing and drug administration in clinics or hospitals
On the last point, I did a bit of a search to look for the total number of syringes used worldwide. I'm actually questioning whether that number is using similar methodology to arrive at the ~1.1 billion number, since I'm seeing numbers around 15 billion for the annual number of injections - meaning that Pakistan would be using over double the average per-capita number of syringes (and re-using many of them) while simultaneously having a population that's much younger (23 vs 31 median age) and poorer ($7k vs $26k median PPP/capita) than average.
If those numbers check out, the simple solution would just be to stop giving unnecessary injections, money would be saved, and there'd be no need to reuse syringes.