Dr's surgery masks etc

[Turtletotem]

I went to the Dr's because I've hurt my back and in a lot of pain.
As I walked in there's a sign saying 'masks to be worn at all times' I roll my eyes because I work in a school and come into daily contact with 100s of children and colleagues with no mask wearing...
Anyhow I put on a mask and sit social distancing from everyone else. Now there's an elderly man in the waiting area who clearly has difficulties and is very very dirty his clothes are really bad and his face and hands. A nurse comes out of her room (no mask) and walks past him and stands behind him going into another corridor holding her nose and waving her hand in front of her face implying that the smell is bad. Myself and everyone else wearing masks oblivious to the smell! She came back doing the same as she passed him and went into her room and closed the door.
Now everyone else came and went and he was called in to see someone.
Now I would have expected someone to have cleaned where he had been sitting so that the next person to come in doesn't sit in a very dirty chair and yet they just leave it. Only myself in the waiting room, two people behind the reception screen and non mask nurse walking backwards and forwards. Signs up saying use the hand sanitiser and yet there isn't any! So are they old signs or are they just not providing the equipment?
AIBU to have expected them to at least wipe the chair over? Why are we wearing masks at the Dr's?

The nurse sounds like a horrible human being who should be showing compassion towards someone who is vulnerable instead of mocking them.

As for the masks, I can't blame HCPs for wanting to protect themselves and in turn their most vulnerable patients. Covid is obviously not killing people in the huge numbers it used to but it is still a serious disease.

Chair and mask aside please, please, please email/write to the practice manager and complain about the treatment of this poor man.

We regularly come into contact with patients who smell less than clean, there are some with malodorous wounds that need dressing, others without the facilities to clean themselves but we NEVER make it an issue in front of them or any other patients. We may spray air freshener when they have gone but no patient should be singled out in that way. Please complain, I’m sure you would hate to be gestured about like that behind your back (or your DM/DGF/DS or whoever) if you had the misfortune to be like that.

In our practice it’s down to the individuals choice re masks, personally I always wear one as I see lots of patients, some of whom are vulnerable. Unfortunately hardly any patients give us the consideration of wearing masks. Unless the chair was actually dirty there may not be anything to clean, I probably would have given it a wipe though, but only once the people who had been in there the same time as him had left, just to not make an issue of it.

You need to raise her behaviour to the practise manager.

I'm guessing you're wearing masks because by the very nature of place it'll be full of vulnerable people or poorly people. Neither of who want to increase the risk of covid. They may also have a vulnerable member of staff. Who knows.

As far as the poor patient who smells, the nurse should be ashamed. Please inform the practice manager.

You are asked to wear masks in a doctor's surgery and hospital because there are likely to be clinically extremely vulnerable patients there like me.
I do my best to keep myself safe from infection (not just Covid) by not mingling with others but cannot avoid medical appointments.
And yes , I have had 5 vaccinations but none of them have worked and I don't have any antibodies.
What the nurse did to that poor o!d man was disgusting. I hope you reported it to the practice manager?

That nurse is a very unprofessional bitch iwould be more concerned at the way she is dealing with patients

I vote you are being unreasonable for not complaining about that nurses really shitty attitude (I say that as a nurse of 20+ years).

Oh, and I’d say wear a mask to any health care setting, as there’s a far greater chance there than anywhere else of you being in an enclosed space with someone extremely clinically vulnerable.

The mask whinge is irrelevant; they are still needed in medical settings because of the risk to highly vulnerable people and that's just the way it is.
The nurse making signals about the smell of the old man was being highly unprofessional and lacking in compassion. I would email the practice manager about that, and also mention that since she noticed the lack of hygiene she could have cleaned the seat afterwards.
She probably should have been wearing a mask too, OP, but I would be a bit more lenient about this given that she is in that building all day in hot weather whereas you are coming in for an appointment and then going again. She may well still be doing regular lateral flow testing too.

The nurse needs reporting for her inappropriate behaviour and for not wearing a mask!
I work for the nhs and we still have to wear masks in ours clinics and if we are moving around the building and around patients, if in the staff room then we can take them off. Patients should also be wearing a mask in the waiting room, due to clinically vulnerable people also in the waiting room.