Sharpes Insurances for Medical Professionals

Caring for caring professionals. 

Blood Borne Disease Insurance compensates you if you contract HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C due to a sharps injury while working in your regular occupation

Hospitals, surgeries, clinics and accident sites are often high-pressure, fast-paced environments where sharps injuries to medical professionals occur all too frequently.

• A needlestick or sharps injury (NSI) can also have a devastating impact on your long-term income earning capacity

White-collar professionals are often highly paid and highly leveraged, so they need a comprehensive insurance strategy to safeguard what they have worked hard to achieve.

Accidents do happen

Watch Donald's real-life story below of how a trauma nurse experienced an accidental needle stick injury.

Do you have your own Blood Borne Disease insurance in place?

Often the main reason medical professionals don't have the appropriate insurance in place is due to its complexity. It also takes time and expertise to understand how a bloodborne disease (BBD) can have a devastating effect on both your health and your ability to continue to earn an income.

• Remember that each professional association and governing body may have additional reporting and special requirements that have to be followed after suffering a sharps injury (or blood spatter event) that can have wide-ranging effects on your career.

We understand the needs of medical professionals and can help you protect yourself, your family and even your business partners from the financial consequences of work-related injury.

The Unusual Risks Insured solution for busy and remote professionals

unUsual Risks Insured have flexible face to face, phone to phone or online only solutions to meet these challenges and to provide absolute confidentiality when needed too.

• This also means we can work easily with remote clients in different time zones.

Australian nurses and healthcare workers suffer an estimated 18,000 needlestick injuries a year*

^{*Cathryn L. Murphy, RN, PhD, CICP, CIC Improved surveillance and mandated use of sharp with engineering sharp injury protection: A national call to action. Healthcare Infection 2008.}

Blood borne disease insurance cover can provide lump-sum cover between $50,000 and $1 million for medical professionals (dentists, doctors, nurses and paramedics) and for people working in some other at-risk occupations (such as police and pathologists) if they contract HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C due to an accident while working in their usual occupation.

This type of cover can be put in place alongside a typical life insurance policy and covers Bone Dust and Blood Splatter events.

Real Life Statistics

• In Australia, approximately 30 needlestick injuries per 100 beds occur per year.
• At least 18,000 healthcare professionals suffer from an NSI every year.
• And 80% of reported NSI's involve a contaminated needle. ^{The Alliance for Sharps Safety and Needlestick Prevention in Healthcare}

Managing the emotional risks

Occupationally contracting HIV or hepatitis B or hepatitis C can cause emotional significant distress and career consequences that, in turn, can create financial anxieties for you and for those who depend on you.

• Such stresses may have a real impact on your ability to keep working in order to provide for your family and/or run your business.

Confidentiality concerns may further complicate the issue while professional body memberships and requirements may trigger consequences not previously envisaged.

Managing the financial risks

For medical professionals, a work-related injury could mean a long illness and or particular restrictions on the types of duties you can continue to perform at work. Some specialists can even be prevented from working in their chosen field.

• All of these events can have devastating effects on your personal financial situation that could rapidly turn a comfortable financial position into a desperate one.

We have a powerful supportive option to this problem