Someone berated me for asking why they are making "Scrubs bags" for the NHS

[menacingvern]

I signed up to help this person, however all they seem to be making are pillow cases for doctors and nurses to take their scrubs home.
I thought this was really unhygienic as they are going to be made of cotton.

I told her they would have to be lined with some sort of plastic to stop infection and then she called me for everything.
She has people on her page saying "My (dad, mother,son,uncle,gran.....) died I would like the sheets she died in to be made into a nice bag for the NHS workers to know how much they meant to her"
I find this a bit weird, disgusting and a total spread of corona virus.
I may be totally wrong but I would not want to touch a dead persons sheets made into a scrub bag

Most hospitals and other healthcare settings don’t have laundering facilities any more. Some scrubs are sent to commercial laundries with sheets etc but many more staff are now wearing scrubs and laundering at home at 60 degrees centigrade or ironing them.

Masks of cotton are no use because masks get wet from breath allowing easier transmission. Cotton masks don’t protect the wearer they protect others from spitting and breathing the virus over a wider distance.

Locally, there are scrubs sewers but most are professional seamstresses from the theatre supported by competent amateurs. The less skilled without overlockers are on laundry bag and bandana duties. The hats/bandanas can prevent sore ears from mask elastics.

There is considerable demand from the four trusts local to here (community, two acute and mental health) because most would not usually wear scrubs. GP services also want them.

I've already made about 25 of these. They are VERY easy to make, unlike scrubs which take a little bit of dressmaking experience. Scrubs bags are just rectangles of fabric and sewing in straight lines. My 11 year old made one - it's that easy. Old bedding is ideal - I've used a Frozen duvet cover DD has grown out of.

They have gone, via a doctor friend, to A&E and the Covid wards at the local hospital.

Another friend is making wide fabric headbands for nurses to hold their hair back off their faces while wearing masks/visors.

Why can't they just use a pillowcase?

Because a pillow case is harder to carry? Because a drawstring bag stops anything falling out?

Yes you could in theory use a pillow case, but as most pillowcases have an envelope opening, it won't stop things falling out. A drawstring allows you to close the bag fully and sling the whole thing in the machine when you get home.

If you don't want to make any, then don't. Nobody's taking lists of who is making them and who has a sewing machine and isn't contributing. Personally I've just used things I had in the house already like old duvet covers and cord/ribbon for the drawstring. I know that what I've made has been gratefully received.

This thread makes me a little sad. Mocking people for doing something helpful. I get that the crafter is also 'feeling useful' for doing it, but is that a bad thing?

I've been making them for a care home that has asked for them. The staff appear to be grateful.

It's important that The drawstring is loosened so that the clothes can escape while in the wash. Pillow cases are less effective as the 'flap' makes it harder for clothes to escape and get a thorough wash.

I'd have thought everything falling out in the washing machine would be a good thing as the wash would be more thorough. As for carrying them home, well either people are walking so holding the top of a pillowcase isn't a big deal, they are in their car so slinging the pillowcase in the boot isn't a bit deal, or they are on public transport and if they are then I don't think a cotton bag is the best way to carry them, surely you would have to put them in a plastic bag? Who would want to sit next to a cotton bag full of contaminated clothing?

If people are making what they've been asked to make by hospitals and care homes, what does it matter to anyone else?

All this bloody carping!

Oh well clear as mud then, so pillowcases are less useful because the clothing can fall out in the wash and they are also less useful because the clothing can't fall out in the wash. Glad I asked.

As with the plastic visors being made by school printers, I have heard that they are not fit for use, which is a real shame. So lots of well intentioned assistance is just not up to the job. I don't know what the answer is really, people want to feel like they are helping, but it needs to be understood that standards are really tight. There was a recent post on FB from a school claiming to ge able to make medical gowns, I was itching to ask where they were getting the specialist material and sewing machines from......

Better than more handcream I suppose

Our local hospital ( not with an ICU) has asked our WI group For volunteers to make the headbands which relieve pressure whilst wearing and changing masks. I know the hospital contact who asked for them, and confirmed it was true. She provided a YouTube video link of how to make them.

Having a sewing machine and the skill, I was pleased to be able to contribute - but then discovered than in my ( embarrassingly) large fabric stash, I didn’t have the right stretchy material.

I have given a pattern for knitting hearts for hospitals for DM, one for the patient and one for the family , it makes her happy to feel useful

what's so wrong with those of us who aren't front-line/essential workers a doing what little we can to contribute? especially given that these schemes have been set up, funded and organised while our government seems to view PPE as optional in many/most cases?

it's literally the only way i can contribute and token gesture or not it helps my mental health.

fwiw i'm deconstructing pillowcases and using the "flap" to make drawstrings.

I can see the OPs point questioning if a cotton bag is enough protection for potentially contaminated scrubs, and it is a good idea that the whole thing can then get washed but will the clothes be thoroughly cleaned inside the bag? So that is fair enough to ask. But as long as these bags are working then it's great that people are making something useful.

In the hospital we work we've been specifically told not to take scrubs home, and the hospital laundry will wash them.

However some people wear uniforms, and some people who work on paeds wards have theor own specific scrubs that they are still wearing. Paramedics will have their own uniforms. But weve just been advised to take them home in pillow cases or plastic

My husband has to leave his scrubs at the hospital to be washed in the hospital laundry. I am surprised people are bringing them home to wash.

Cross post with the additional information from Dish.

I am waiting for the fabric to be delivered to make three sets of scrubs for the Children's Hospital.

But weve just been advised to take them home in pillow cases or plastic

If however some well-meaning local person handed in 50 handmade cotton drawstring bags wouldn't you be delighted and use that instead though?

This isn't a "new" idea to make things to help the NHS. I have a friend who is a neo-natal nurse and I keep her stocked with little knitted blankets and hats for her patients. She keeps me updated with what they're short of. They have plenty at the moment, so i'm doing the bags instead.

My niece works in the community doing home visits as a student nurse in her final year. She strips off just inside her front door and then puts everything straight in the machine. I’m very worried about her as there is no control over what is happening nor hygiene standards in the homes she is visiting. She went to one and they had two visitors.

Why can't they just use a pillowcase?

Do you carry your shopping home in a pillowcase or a bag? 🙄

I meant that you want the stuff inside not to fall out when carrying too and from work. You can separate them when going in the washing machine.

Do you put your shopping straight in the washing machine in the bag?

If cotton fabric was an effective barrier we'd all be sewing cotton facemasks. But we're not.

Scrubs don't breathe the virus out into the air though with the force of lungs.

I can’t see that it matters a toss whether it’s a dead person’s sheets (washed) or any of my old sheets and duvet cover that I donated to a local sewing group last week.