Who has authority to inject other than ourselves?

Surely the pharmacist was acting within the remit of the first aider - if he hadn't given the injection things could have got a lot worse, a similar scenario where your wife cut herself badly, you would expect the first aider to stem the flow of blood one way or another before she lost too much blood..........!

slip said:

Surely the pharmacist was acting within the remit of the first aider - if he hadn't given the injection things could have got a lot worse, a similar scenario where your wife cut herself badly, you would expect the first aider to stem the flow of blood one way or another before she lost too much blood..........!

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I imagine the issue is the judgement of critically of giving the injection.

There may be a lack of understanding of the potential implications and there may be an underlying concern that the OP's wife could be unsafe at work if she isn't taking her medication as she should. There are all manner of potentials at play here, and not all of then in any way sinister.

I would be urging the OP and his wife to try to approach this with some positivity in terms of getting his wife the support whe needs so that she and her colleagues remain safe and well at work.

I may have missed it @bennycrock , but what steps are in place to attempt to help with your wife's phobia? To be so reliant upon other doesn't feel too comfortable to me. What if you were unable to do the injections you do for her, for whatever reason? Would that lead to a rapid deterioration in her condition?

I'm not suggesting for a moment you stop supporting her, but it seems like a deeply unsatisfactory long term solution.

None of this post is digging at you or your wife, bennycrock, but just trying to look at the bigger, wider picture a bit.

The company is almost certainly afraid of being sued if anything goes wrong. Your best bet is to talk to the manager - or his/her superior and so on up the chain until you find someone with some common sense. You need to establish what should be done if it happens again. One protocol may be that you give written consent for one of a number of named persons to inject you; this can be arranged at a time when you are obviously compos mentis and in advance of the situation happening. It would be a good idea to do it at a time when there is no pressure and potential injectors can ask you questions if there is anything they don't understand. If you have a trade union, you will probably be able to get a rep to have a discussion of which way forward with your management (with or without you, as you prefer) - they have lots of experience with this sort of thing and are normally sympathetic people. On the question of sueing (spelling?) - the company may well be liable if they prevent you from receiving necessary medication from someone who is prepared to help you and whom you have asked to help - possible useful negotiating point. *** substitute "your wife" for "you" above where appropriate *** and involving a union might well help whoever is being hassled for giving the injection too ***

staffsmatt said:

Here you go this is what I meant, they're called injection ports:

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=injection port

Look into it first though, I have never used one (and don't know anyone else that has either) so they might be rubbish...

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Hi, These ports look amazing. I am also needle phobic despite being type 1 for over 45 years. I have managed to self inject but also taught many, many friends and family to help out over the years. Pump therapy has really changed things as I quickly adapted to the insertion of the cannula and I am now able to manage independently. The use of an insulin port which needs changing only every three days as opposed to five injections daily could be a real help to needle phobic diabetics.

I have to say I feel some sympathy for your wife, I was moderately needle phobic, and have passed out having blood tests, I also tensed up once to the point I snapped the needle in my arm. I got into tattoos as I like the final effect, also piercings, I have passed out doing then to myself, but that whole thing passed when I had heart trouble and had a lot of blood tests, I got used to it and the fact I had to live with it, it was that or die and Life became more important, I am now insulin dependant T2 but have never had an issue since, I think it was realising the choice was fear of something to help me live or fear of death the latter became more important.
I think you can ask anybody and they have the right to refuse, at work there can also be a problem with liability insurance for employers, but I think that is irrelevant and common sense should rule

Could be insurance/company policy/health and safety issues. I once asked for a glass of water in the reception area at my GP's surgery. The staff had a water cooler and plastic glasses for themselves and the answer I got was "no, for health and safety you could choke". I laughed, asked for the Practice Manager and said I was diabetic, very hyperglycaemic (was 21 mmol/l) and ultra thirsty. I said "well would you rather I died ?" and they gave me a glass hurriedly and said "shhh !". Got me thinking like the OP's post and if I consent to anyone to inject my insulin is it legal and any safeguards for the person administering the jab ?

As there was cases in America of people being sued for helping out in accidents, so people would not get involved, In England and Wales there is an act that prevents people being sued for helping out in a crisis

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/3/introduction/enacted
Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015

This act would cover pharmacist if sued.

eddie1968 said:

Got me thinking like the OP's post and if I consent to anyone to inject my insulin is it legal and any safeguards for the person administering the jab ?

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If you consent, it's completely legal for the person you have given consent to to inject you.

In terms of safeguards - do you mean any protection for them if it for some reason goes wrong & you sue them? In order to sue for personal injury, the person doing the thing (giving the injection) will have to have done so in a completely unreasonable way - if it is just Joe Bloggs off the street with no professional expectation that they should know how to give an injection the standard of give an injection like a reasonable person would is going to be pretty low, so low that I can't see how they would ever breach it - in summary, I don't think they need any safeguards from being sued cos you aren't going to be able to make a case against them.

I was thinking of some lawyer looking for a few quid. Doubt it would be applicable to someone just trying to help even if things went pear shaped.

Shar67 said:

As there was cases in America of people being sued for helping out in accidents, so people would not get involved, In England and Wales there is an act that prevents people being sued for helping out in a crisis

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/3/introduction/enacted
Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015

This act would cover pharmacist if sued.

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I live in Scotland where this Act doesn't apply. I am going to search for it's Scottish counterpart or it may be common law.

Flip side, if he refused to inject her, and she was hospitalised, she could sue under health and safety at work duty of care, bearing in mind part of his job is to inject people, so has the skill, knows about her illness and she asked him.

I know pre Social action, responsibility and heroism Act. Case law in tort deemed a rescurer could be sued if negligent in that rescue attempt. The rescurer was deemed joe blogg.
I'm an old LLB student but didn't go on to practice. Wish I did now thou.
Goodluck reasoning with the bosses. I hope it goes well. Maybe company could help with some counselling or hypnosis therapy?

Shar67 said:

Flip side, if he refused to inject her, and she was hospitalised, she could sue under health and safety at work duty of care, bearing in mind part of his job is to inject people, so has the skill, knows about her illness and she asked him.

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Or maybe just phone an ambulance. Duty of care doesn't cover pharmacy treatment, beyond responsible care. But always arguable in court.

But it isn't pharmacy v j public it is 2 work colleagues