Some people in High Prairie, Alta., are questioning the safety of their hospital after it was revealed Monday that staff had been reusing syringes to inject medication through intravenous lines for years.

About 2,700 patients who received endoscopy procedures at the High Prairie Health Complex between March 1, 2004 and Oct. 2, 2008, and dental surgery going back to 1990, could be at risk of infection.

"I think it's pretty scary," said former hospital patient Lyndsay Horrick.

Horrick was treated for an infection with an intravenous syringe at the hospital a few months ago. While she was relieved to find out she wouldn't need to be tested, because only endoscopy and dental surgery patients could be affected, she wanted to know how something like this could happen.

"There's no excuse for it," she said.

Syringes are not supposed to be reused on IV lines because of the potential of backflow, where body fluids from a line could be drawn back into the medication.

"If the remaining medication was then used on another patient, there's a potential for transmission of infection," Dr. Albert de Villiers, the chief medical officer of health for the Peace Country region said Monday.

Risk of infection called low

The practice was discovered in early October by a supervisor at the hospital.

The Health Quality Council of Alberta has been called in to investigate. Health officials tried to quell fears Monday by pointing out the risk of infection is very low.

But the practice of reusing needles to inject medication into IV lines used to be common, according to Dr. Gerry Predy, Alberta's acting chief medical officer of health.

"Probably common until about some time around the year 2000," he said Tuesday on CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "We're just trying to review all the documentation, guidelines that were issued back then to see when exactly the practice changed .… It's changed gradually over time in different places, so there's probably not one date that we can say it actually changed."

Why it took so long for medical staff in High Prairie to become aware of the change in practice is something the Health Quality Council will investigate, Predy said.

Dr. Robin Laughlin, chief of medical staff at the High Prairie Health Complex, told CBC News Monday he would also like answers into what happened.

Encouraged to co-operate

"What did I think? Well, I was quite shocked," Laughlin said. "Some things are done in trust. I've been doing scopes for 20 years with the same staff."

When asked if he assumed they were trained properly, Laughlin answered yes.

The president of the United Nurses of Alberta, Heather Smith, said she hoped the public doesn't blame front-line nurses for what happened.

She also encouraged everyone involved to co-operate with the investigation by the Health Quality Council.

"I don't see any reason or any benefit to any of the parties involved in this situation in withholding any information as to why this has been the practice, who initiated it when, and certainly we would be counselling our members to co-operate fully and disclose all possible information in terms of the practices at the facility," Smith said.

Her sentiments were shared by Alberta Health minister Ron Liepert on Monday.

Liepert said laying blame early in the investigation would be counterproductive, because if people don't feel free to share what they know, investigators won't be able to get to the bottom of what happened and prevent it from occurring again.

Alberta Health Services is in the process of contacting former patients who may be at risk of infection, so they can be tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C.