Alberta's acting chief medical officer of health is alerting other provinces to the possibility that the reuse of syringes may be happening in hospitals across the country.

Dr. Gerry Predy held a conference call with his provincial counterparts on Friday.

The practices in question involved reusing syringes to inject into IV equipment. (CBC)

"What we've done is we've offered to share our experience with the other provinces and with the Public Health Agency of Canada to ensure that they're aware of what's happening," Predy said. "And if they want to take steps to look at this issue in their provinces, they can follow some of the steps that we've done."

Earlier this week, health officials in High Prairie, Alta., announced that 2,700 former patients of the hospital in the northern Alberta town would need to be tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C after it was discovered staff were using the same syringes more than once to administer medication through intravenous lines to different patients.

The publicity surrounding the announcements has revealed the practice wasn't just limited to High Prairie.

On Thursday, health officials in Saskatchewan and Alberta announced a physician who practises at hospitals in Lloydminster, Sask. and Vermilion, Alta, had been using single-use syringes in the same manner.

Late Friday afternoon, officials with the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region in central Saskatchewan announced the mental health outpatients division had been reusing syringes to inject medication directly into IV bags.

In each case, officials have insisted the risk of infection is low.

While patients in High Prairie are now being contacted for testing, Predy said no decision has been made to order blood tests for people who may be affected at the hospitals in Vermilion and Lloydminster.

Saskatchewan chief medical officer of health said yesterday they don't want to unnecessarily test people and cause anxiety.

Predy said telling people to get tested for hepatitis and HIV is a difficult decision to make.

"Well it is a balance whenever you look at whether or not you're going to test people and do a lookback. It's a balance you have to weigh the risk of the infection versus the risk of creating anxiety," he said. "But in the High Prairie situation we did base our lookback on an expert opinion and it was done in an objective way and we stand behind it."

Predy says once the reuse of syringes was discovered, it was stopped, adding it has not been an accepted practice for years.

The Public Health Agency of Canada will be putting together a working group to help provinces and territories assess the risk in their jurisdiction, a federal government spokesperson told Radio Canada in an e-mail Friday.