I’m a nurse, I’ve worked all through Covid and lived to tell the tale. We’re a ‘clean’ ward and have been throughout the pandemic. However, the Infection Control bods (who mainly live in comfortable offices) have decreed that no water is to be kept by staff anywhere on the ward (including the front desk away from patients) and must be consumed in the staff room.
Here’s the catch: the staff room is a 3-minute walk away and is shared with other departments, including departments that have ‘dirty’ zones.
Surely we cannot be reasonably expected to work 13 hour shifts in masks and not be permitted to have a quick drink of water without walking for six minutes to get one? We also have diabetics and pregnant women among the staff.
Would we be unreasonable to get the union involved? Is this even legal?!