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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think this maskless woman should not be working in a hospital?

142 replies

PeachyBottom · 03/02/2021 09:26

Went for a blood test this morning. The area leading to where they are taken is very cramped with small cubicles running off there.

There was a phlebotomist working in the next cubicle to mine without a mask on. She was standing at the opening to my cubicle chatting loudly and laughing to the phlebotomist taking my sample so three of us in very enclosed quarters (no windows) and her breath everywhere.

I was shocked someone would be working in close quarters with lots of members of the public in a hospital without a mask. The ridiculousness of it made me quite angry actually!

AIBU to think that if this person couldn’t wear a mask in these circumstances, she shouldn’t be at work?

OP posts:

Whyistheteacold · 03/02/2021 13:07

@Sweet666

If you're that scared then just stay at home... who cares if she isn't wearing a mask

What a ridiculous thing to say, the OP was taking her child for a blood test, she was hardly out having a jolly

ilovesooty · 03/02/2021 13:08

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@Indecisive12

Isn’t that discriminating against a potential health or mental health issue?[/quote]
Reasonable adjustment would surely be a non patient facing role.

Chanandlerbong01 · 03/02/2021 13:10

If you're that scared then just stay at home... who cares if she isn't wearing a mask

Yes op, please do not take your child for medical care that none of us know the reason behind. How dare you put your child’s medical needs ahead of this persons right to potentially spread a virus that has killed over 100,000 people.

Glad you’ve reported it to PALS

LucilleTheVampireBat · 03/02/2021 13:11

One hand - Protect the NHS/these people are heros/let's clap every Thursday/rainbows all over the place/OUR NHS

Other hand - REPORT THE BITCH, she should be sacked.

Hardbackwriter · 03/02/2021 13:13

You can't sack someone for being mask exempt but you can - and should - move them to a non-patient facing role. My local hospital says that if your chosen birth partner is exempt from wearing a mask then, tough luck, find a new birth partner - it wouldn't normally be considered ok to ban a man from being at the birth of his child due to a medical condition but in this case they've decided that the risks outweigh the benefit, and the same is true of a member of staff needing to change roles if they can't wear a mask.

megletthesecond · 03/02/2021 13:18

Yanbu. She needs to be in a mask or not in an enclosed patient facing environment.

Snowdropsanddaffs · 03/02/2021 13:18

She should be wearing a mask. If she is not able to wear a mask she should have been working away from people.

We have a security guard at our local Morrisons who doesn't wear a mask who has the job of enforcing mask wearing. Makes me laugh at the ridiculousness of it all every time I go in. The security guard should be away from the public in an office monitoring CCTV or something if they cannot wear a mask. Common sense really. Well, to me it is.

starfishmummy · 03/02/2021 13:20

I don’t think she should’ve been chatting away with your phlebotomist during your appointment

I went for a blood test this week and there are new signs up telling patients not to talk to the phlebotomists because if they are distracted and don't label the sample properly, it won't be tested.

I take my cur from the staff. If they chat to me I answer otherwise I keep quiet!!

SycamoreGap · 03/02/2021 13:21

@LucilleTheVampireBat

One hand - Protect the NHS/these people are heros/let's clap every Thursday/rainbows all over the place/OUR NHS

Other hand - REPORT THE BITCH, she should be sacked.

Don't be ridiculous.

Patients should not be put at risk by staff.

Staff who cannot wear masks should be re-deployed to non-patient facing roles as a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act.

NoNotHimTheOtherOne · 03/02/2021 13:23

If you're that scared then just stay at home... who cares if she isn't wearing a mask

If you're that stupid then just shut the fuck up.

All staff in NHS hospitals are required to wear face masks except in Covid-secure areas. No exemptions.

Snowdropsanddaffs · 03/02/2021 13:23

@BeaSmithers

Yes YABU.....and very judgmental. You have no way of knowing why this lady wasn't wearing a mask.

Far too many interfering busybodies around these day.

Yeah, going for a blood test at a hospital and wondering why the person taking the blood isn't wearing a mask to protect patients has got interfering busy body written all over it.

abonae · 03/02/2021 13:26

If this woman really is exempt, she should not be seeing patients face-to-face.

TheCanyon · 03/02/2021 13:26

I also had the joy of being treated by an (redeployed) a&e Dr who varied between wearing his mask under his nose/chin, not once was it on properly in 3 hours. Damn right I made a complaint about him.

Haffiana · 03/02/2021 13:28

@CharlotteRose90

You can’t discriminate against someone working In a hospital and not wearing a mask. They don’t have to and you need to suck it up. If you were truly unhappy with her being there you should have just said you weren’t comfortable her being near you and she would have moved away.

Wrong. So very wrong. So very entitled, too.

SycamoreGap · 03/02/2021 13:32

@CharlotteRose90

Are you just making up the rules?

No you don't have to 'suck it up'! She should not have been there.

Nanny0gg · 03/02/2021 13:39

@BeaSmithers

Yes YABU.....and very judgmental. You have no way of knowing why this lady wasn't wearing a mask.

Far too many interfering busybodies around these day.

OFGS!

She wasn't even supposed to be there - chatting to a colleague who should be concentrating on what she was doing is not ok anyway!

And it's not bloody 'judgemental' to not want to catch covid! If this is normal practice, no wonder it's rife in hospitals!

mildlymiffed · 03/02/2021 13:40

@LucilleTheVampireBat I think you may have missed the point. Reporting a frontline healthcare worker for not wearing a mask is protecting the nhs. If the individual was a spreader, them not wearing a mask would have a detrimental impact on the nhs, given that they presumably have close contact with many people (including people who are vulnerable). Not sure why this is confusing...

As other nhs workers on here have said, frontline workers need to be people who can wear masks.

The op is right to be concerned, and right to raise those concerns.

Nanny0gg · 03/02/2021 13:40

@LucilleTheVampireBat

One hand - Protect the NHS/these people are heros/let's clap every Thursday/rainbows all over the place/OUR NHS

Other hand - REPORT THE BITCH, she should be sacked.

There really is some rank stupidity on this thread.

wasthataburp · 03/02/2021 13:41

Obviously she has a legit reason and not to let her work would be discriminatory. None of your business I'm afraid

SycamoreGap · 03/02/2021 13:45

@wasthataburp

Obviously she has a legit reason and not to let her work would be discriminatory. None of your business I'm afraid

It is her business and no it wouldn't be discriminatory.

Patients should not be put at risk by staff.

Staff who cannot wear masks should be re-deployed to non-patient facing roles as a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act.

theliverpoolone · 03/02/2021 13:49

If you're that scared then just stay at home... who cares if she isn't wearing a mask

Hilarious. I have to go for a blood test this afternoon - really important due to a medical condition. Maybe, as I'm clinically vulnerable, I should cancel, take my own blood and post it to them, so as not to get in the way of staff there who want to wander about maskless

iljatdip · 03/02/2021 13:50

Interfering busybody would be someone interfering/causing a scene about some random shopper you don't know not wearing a mask.
It is not being an interfering busybody to wonder why someone working with patients in a medical setting isn't wearing a mask.
They should be wearing one and if they aren't able to then they need to be deployed elsewhere.
They also shouldn't be sitting chatting with their colleague while the colleague carries out a procedure as it increases the infection risk by having too many people in the same small space.

tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz · 03/02/2021 13:56

There are some spectacularly stupid replies on this thread.

Absolutely if you are a HCP and a genuine exemption means you are unable to wear a mask then you should be placed to work in a position where you have no patient contact and little contact with anyone else.

Whilst it's not ideal (I work in a school and my colleagues are shielding meaning I sit in an office on my own all day. No face to face contact at all. It sucks and it's lonely but it's not forever so I get on with it) it's necessary for everyone's safety.

And in no way at all is it discriminatory.

Joeblack066 · 03/02/2021 13:59

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@Indecisive12

Isn’t that discriminating against a potential health or mental health issue?[/quote]
Not if the Covid Risk Assessment evaluates that she should not be patient facing.
As long as they find her alternative work on the same grade etc they are not discriminating.

VinylDetective · 03/02/2021 14:02

@Samcro

surely if she is exempt she should be given a job to do that is not around patients.

She’s a phlebotomist! How’s she going to take blood without seeing patients?

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