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Trust awaits tests after toddler pricked by used needle

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24 September 2008

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A primary care trust is investigating after a two-year-old girl pricked her finger with a dirty needle she found on a health centre floor.

Hollie Bromley, 21, was having her 10-month-old son, Dominic, weighed and measured at Tunstall Health Clinic in Stoke-on-Trent when her daughter Casey found the used needle under a desk.

A nurse cleaned up a puncture wound to her finger and she was taken to University Hospital of North Staffordshire for blood tests. However, doctors said it was too early to know if she has contracted an illness and that Casey would need further tests in three months’ time.

A spokesman for Stoke-on-Trent PCT said: “We can confirm that we are looking into the incident and are maintaining close contact with the family.”

Mrs Bromley said she and her husband Leon were seeking legal advice and planned to take action against the clinic.

“When she came out from under the desk her hand was covered in blood and she had a dirty needle sticking out of her finger,” Mrs Bromley added.

“I felt sick to my stomach. “We have no idea who used the needle before but all sorts of people use that clinic – she could have picked anything up.”

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Stoke-on-Trent Primary Care NHS Trust