Vocal Voices

I am amazed that every time I go to our local hospital I observe that near 80% of those entering and leaving it fail to use the hand disinfectant.. I have not seen one of these hand cleaners outsideof the majority of treatment centres doors, some in the hospital remain empty...However the door handles are always tacky and uncleaned in most departments.. Even worse I rarely observe staff, doctors and nurses following the rule. We are aware that we have infections that do not respond to antibiotics, the latest CRE that is a killer with a neglible survival rate..

At Southampton, I'm pleased to say, the staff I saw at my last visit were extremely good, using the dispensers when going between departments, etc. It was only a bone density test, so no risk at all, but the lady operating the machinery used it before entering the room, and I saw others doing the same as I walked along the corridors.
Don't know about the visitors, but have thought before that the staff should be pointing it out to them and not let them into the wards until they've used it.

Sorry, but I think that these dispensers are a load of self-serving tosh - look at us, we are working hard to stop the spread of disease.

Is it only our hands that have germs? What about our clothes, our hair, our faces, handbags, money and the air around us?

It is absolutely imperative that medical staff 'scrub up' before touching a patient and between patients, but pretending that we are creating a sterile environment with a gel dispenser at the door is nonsense.

I agree to an extent WM, but it is worrying that visitors to wards where patients are vulnerable both public and staff), don't take any notice.
The more staff are seen to be using the dispensers, it seems to me the more visitors might.

What worries me as well is the amount of people I see out and about in the shops near our big hospital in nurses uniforms, even the scrubs type.............either on their way to work or way home. That must take germs in Should they not be changing when they get there?

Kaz wrote:What worries me as well is the amount of people I see out and about in the shops near our big hospital in nurses uniforms, even the scrubs type.............either on their way to work or way home. That must take germs in Should they not be changing when they get there?

Kaz, that's a concern of mine too. I used to see nurses on the school playground in uniform when I was collecting Joe too. Another goes to the gym in her uniform before her shift.
I know when my sister started nursing that her uniforms were laundered by the hospital and were changed into and out of at the hospital before and after shifts but I suppose it's all a matter of cost-cutting isn't it.

I know they did, and that still ought to be the case. It horrifies my MIL, the ex nurse

I dread to think of the germs in school playgrounds and gyms, for example

worst of all in my opinion is the question of footwear !

One of the dirtiest places in any office building is a shared computer keyboard.

All concerns above are correct.. Not only do nurses tend to look scruffy, but also doctors male and female, no longer the white coats in our hospital but mufti, no spacial care to hair! shoes often dirty, probably been worn out for a booze up the night before!!
My friends daughter who suffers with depression is a nurse, she is more often than not bad tempered, continually complains how tired she is and how fed up she is with work, and she only works part time.. I would not feel very confident as a patient were I under her care knowing how she complains.