To think that booking in at GP surgery is bad hygiene ?

[PartyFops]

Just been to GP surgery, to check in you have to enter your date of birth on a touch screen and confirm your details and appointment.

AIBU to think that this is crazy? I know there is always some hand-gel nearby but not everyone uses it. There must be allsorts of germs on sick peoples hands.

I always use my knuckles and then loads of gel

According to a recent study the dirtiest thing in every day public use is, in fact, the handle of a petrol pump.

Just out of interest.

I refuse to use the one at my GP'S as there is no hand gel and yes I also use my sleeves to open loo doors. Many viruses and bacteria can survive on inanimate objects, some for months/years. Contrary to popular belief, viruses do not strengthen the immune system, they weaken it.

I love it because all the pensioners are queuing for the receptionist and I sashay past them and check in in seconds.

Yeah, all those silly pensioners who can't use a computer

GERMS BUILD IMMUNITY

Well actually, in my case, I used to bring home colds, which resulted in my kids being rushed to hospital with many asthma attacks.

So no, those germs could have killed them.

Hence the hand gel nowadays, which means I get fewer colds, and the kids lives are not compromised so much
[nowadays they are older and some of them are quite a bit better, asthma wise].

I knew that if I mentioned handgel, some of the above remarks would come up.

But if anyone thinks I am going to stop, well, do you really think I will? Or should?

fwiw, I have handgel in my car, and one in my bag.
I dont go out that often, so only use it say once a week.

Me too rabbit - if it was that bad then why do hospitals make such a massive deal out of using it?

Trollies at supermarkets, door handles etc do have germs, of course they do, but at the doctor's surgery it is far more likely that bugs that can lay people low for ages are around.

People forget that a common cold or a 24 hour bug for some people is a whole week or more for others.

The screen at the surgery was filthy last time I was there

And there's no hand gel at our surgery. Blerk!

When DH's grandad was in hospital the ward kept reminding visitors to use hand gel, but people didn't because they weren't bothered. So the patients suffered bug after bug after bug which their depleted immune systems couldn't fight off.

That's why it's different in hospital.

Lots of people visiting surgeries will have low immune systems too.

A relative of mine used to always report and then get immediately put in a side room and not sit with the other patients, as her immune system was so bad.

Just because someones at the doctors doesnt mean they're infectious or contagious! ! Looking back on the past 3 or 4 years I havent been at the doctors once for anything that could be passed on.

Youre probably at far more risk at cash machines etc

Just because someones at the doctors doesnt mean they're infectious or contagious! ! Looking back on the past 3 or 4 years I havent been at the doctors once for anything that could be passed on.

Youre probably at far more risk at cash machines etc

I always whip my sleeve over my hand before I use it - studies show that respiratory illnesses in particular actually spread faster by touch contamination than by droplet infection IIRC. I'm not keen on picking up the flu from the surgery - there are always people coughing and spluttering into damp hankies in the waiting room!

I used to pick up loads of illnesses, particularly flu-type things, and have bad asthma as a result for years - until a few years ago I decided to stop touching doorhandles on trains, in public loos etc. and I now am very careful to wash my hands a lot more after being out or in work and it's tissue or sleeve over the hand when using cash points, card readers, etc. I might look a bit neurotic, but the amount of minor illnesses I catch has dropped dramatically, I feel much more fit and don't need preventer inhalers now, so squish to all the germophiles

Just because someones at the doctors doesnt mean they're infectious or contagious! ! Looking back on the past 3 or 4 years I havent been at the doctors once for anything that could be passed on.

Youre probably at far more risk at cash machines etc

ooops phone playing up apologies for multiple posts

Sometimes they are Redglitter!!

GERMS BUILD IMMUNITY

Not always they don't!

I remember when I got norovirus a while ago I did some reading up on it. It can survive on surfaces for a long time; you may be able to become infected with as few as 10-20 virus particles; and that not just through the mouth but it can infect you if you rub your eye with a contaminated hand or by droplet infection. It's spread by people who think they are recovered but are still shedding the virus and get it in their hands / don't wash hands properly after going to the loo. Healthcare environments are flash points for it because it travels through families so mum who's had D&V but feels fine brings vomity baby to surgery, but she's still infectious etc.... That's why surgeries and hospitals are desperate to make sure people with D&V don't come in!

A dose of it might make you immune to the virus for six weeks or so but that's no reason why you'd particularly want to have norovirus, which though not particularly harmful is hardly what you'd like to have just for the shits and giggles if you pardon the pun

YABU. They are there to help bust queues but aren't compulsory. you don't have to use them and can check in manually if you like.

My cancer ward has them...and they are dealing with people who may have reduced immunity through chemotherapy etc. Clearly hygiene isn't that big an issue with them or else the cancer ward (which is usually shit hot on sources of infection) wouldn't allow them.

Funnily enough though, ours always tells me that the waiting time is 0 minutes. It lies!

I really don't get the using your sleeve to open toilet doors. So you are happy to have the gems hang around on the absorbent surface of your sleeve, but not on your hands which can be washed immediately?

im not disputing that rabbit I said they're not always. Going by earlier comments it sounded as if the assumption was everyone at the docs had some horrible illness.

lackaDAISYcal you open the door with your sleeve on the way out!

and still transfer germs to your sleeve, which you will then come into contact with at some point

YANBU. They're disgusting. And easy for other people to see your date of birth etc.
The doors in my doctors are automatic, I don't touch the magazines which are shite anyway which have been pawed over and sneezed on by 100s of people, but then I have to poke some germ screen on the wall. No need.

I don't rub my eyes with my sleeve though, or need to eat with it or use my phone with it! Honestly if you think about how few people wash their hands before they grasp the handle of the door on the way out....urgh.