Pharmaniaga Bhd, the sole pharmaceutical product supplier to public hospitals, said it would welcome a move by the Health Ministry to direct all hospitals to use safety syringes but medical experts have mixed opinions about the practicality of such a practice.

On Monday, Yap Chin Kwee - former political secretary of the country's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj - alerted malaysiakini about the existence of safety syringes ( photo ) and called for a government directive for all public hospitals to use them to avoid needle-stick injuries.

Yap added that o­nly a handful of government hospitals Institut Jantung Negara, Universiti Sains Malaysia hospital and two armed forces hospitals have been using safety syringes for high-risk cases since last year.