Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Why have masks only been worn since Covid.?

32 replies

fireflylanegirls · 10/03/2021 14:59

Why haven’t Dr’s / hospital staff always had to wear masks?

Why haven’t we had to wear masks in a medical environment ie Dr’s or hospital appointment?

Drs are full of sick people so why haven’t we had masks in place for years, wouldn’t this make sense to stop transmission of other illnesses?

I hope masks stay!!

OP posts:
MorePotatoSalad · 10/03/2021 15:05

They had never been tested. Facial expressions are part of trust that patient has with doctor. Doctors performing treatments would wear masks, don't know details but surgeons yes.

It will come down to cost.

Boph · 10/03/2021 15:12

Good question!
I have often joked that I'd like to wear a facemask when flying. Every single time I fly I pick up an infection. Last time I ended up with pneumonia. I will definitely be wearing one on future flights even if they are no longer compulsory as I think the taboo is broken and it will be socially acceptable.

Aimee1987 · 10/03/2021 15:14

Because masks would only protect you against upper respiratory infections. A large poportion of people attending gps for example would be suffering from a range of illnesses or sometimes just there for vaccination. If you were going to argue for masks to prevent the spread of things like the flu or cold you would need to implement it everywhere which I would see little compliance for.

In hospital setting it depends, in certain circumstances like cystic fibrosis wards or clinics I think they are quite common even pre covid. Equally in surgery as a patient open on a table is massively immunocompromised and therefore at a drastically increased risk of infection surgical equipment is steralised and surgeons / surgical staff all scrub up and wear sterile gowns and masks.

HereComesATractor · 10/03/2021 15:21

I understand from a surgeon relative (so I don’t have any kind of proper source) that masks during surgery were introduced to protect the surgeon.

If you watch call the midwife, they are often wearing masks during delivery

notrub · 10/03/2021 15:33

  1. Masks, unless sealed to the skin and accompanied by goggles do not offer much protection to the wearer. They are to protect others FROM the wearer.

  2. Where a patient is vulnerable, masks are commonly worn - e.g. during surgery to prevent any bacteria getting into the wound.

  3. Very few diseases are spread via aerosols and the main ones commonly thought to spread in this way before covid, are relatively harmless. Covid is approx 1000x more deadly than seasonal influenza.

Aimee1987 · 10/03/2021 15:34

@HereComesATractor

I understand from a surgeon relative (so I don’t have any kind of proper source) that masks during surgery were introduced to protect the surgeon.

If you watch call the midwife, they are often wearing masks during delivery

NICE guidelines suggest it is to protect patient and staff. We were ordered to wear them on animal surgeries to protect the animal rather then ourselves.
TheOneWithTheBigNose · 10/03/2021 15:36

Because they only offer some protection against respiratory illnesses, which only makes up a small number of potential illnesses.
Because they hinder communication.
Because they cost money.

I won’t be wearing one again as soon as it’s no longer the law.

Tatum1234 · 10/03/2021 15:55

I hope they don’t stay and will never wear one again once it’s no longer law. I still don’t think a homemade mask does much and was fine before catching the occasional cough and cold

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 10/03/2021 16:04

I'm the same @Tatum1234, as soon as it's no longer law to wear one they'll be going in the bin.

HereComesATractor · 10/03/2021 16:05

“ HereComesATractor
I understand from a surgeon relative (so I don’t have any kind of proper source) that masks during surgery were introduced to protect the surgeon.

If you watch call the midwife, they are often wearing masks during delivery
NICE guidelines suggest it is to protect patient and staff. We were ordered to wear them on animal surgeries to protect the animal rather then ourselves.”

Just to be clear, my two comments were separate. I am talking historically re surgical masks, not about current rules, and it could easily be protection of the patient in terms of why they were originally introduced, I have no independent source.

HereComesATractor · 10/03/2021 16:06

All I meant about call the midwife was that there was a time when they wore masks during delivery, which they did not during my first birth a few years ago. So it’s not like these things have been fixed - the rules have changed over the decades

ScarletZebra · 10/03/2021 16:11

Why would anyone choose to make communication even more difficult, especially in a medical setting?

I had a ridiculous consultation with the vet last year, standing outside the surgery, both of us wearing masks and having to keep asking him what he'd said as I couldn't understand a word. Imagine having to make a treatment option for yourself or your child under those circumstances.

PicsInRed · 10/03/2021 16:14

I hope masks stay!!

No one's stopping you from becoming a mask lifer, alas, I shall not join you on this momentous journey.

loulouljh · 10/03/2021 16:14

I will never wear one again...unless i retrain as a surgeon! Hateful things...

Newmama29 · 10/03/2021 16:19

As a nurse we used them with a lot of patients that had infectious diseases (flu etc). However we were always told that surgical masks only had a time period of about 5 mins to work then they were no longer effective so I find it funny that now we’ve to wear them all the time.

110APiccadilly · 10/03/2021 16:32

Way back last year, I had an appointment with a consultant, where we were both wearing masks. We really struggled to communicate (both he and I had a bit of an accent, which of course doesn't help). A later related phonecall revealed he'd actually completely misunderstood something I'd told him.

Now scale that up across the NHS. Will that cost more lives than masks save? I honestly don't know, but we should probably check before we go all in for masks.

Toddlerteaplease · 10/03/2021 16:52

I was looking after a child having a cochlear implant last week. It was a nightmare as she lip reads a lot. The BSL interpreter turned up with a mask, with a clear plastic panel in it.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 10/03/2021 17:04

DH is partially deaf and is really struggling. When people speak to him wearing a mask they are muffled and he can hardly understand them. He feels isolated at the best of times but this is much worse.

lljkk · 10/03/2021 20:35

I think masks are here permanently except maybe psychiatric treatment will drop them.

They make it harder for HCWs to talk to each other or to patients.

Claire926 · 10/03/2021 22:44

I remember the dentist and the hygienist always wore masks when I went.

I wore a mask yesterday for 2 and half hours at college, I couldn't breathe it was awful.

OpheliasCrayon · 11/03/2021 06:10

@ScarletZebra

Why would anyone choose to make communication even more difficult, especially in a medical setting?

I had a ridiculous consultation with the vet last year, standing outside the surgery, both of us wearing masks and having to keep asking him what he'd said as I couldn't understand a word. Imagine having to make a treatment option for yourself or your child under those circumstances.

Having spent the best part of the year so far in hospital and having only spoken to medics wearing masks, I've made all medical decisions with people wearing masks. So I don't need to "imagine' making treatment choices for myself under these circumstances. I've managed just fine.

I'm also CEV and massively immunosuppressed and didn't catch covid from any of them, so... Likely a good choice to have their faces covered I would say...

This is not a legitimate argument and is just one of those silly excuses why you can't / don't went to wear a face covering

Hardbackwriter · 11/03/2021 09:53

People seem to want to say either that masks are so terrible that they shouldn't be worn at all or that they're totally problem-free - but the truth is clearly in the middle. They do impact on communication, they do make some activities harder, but that's worth it at the moment. It won't be forever. Similarly DH is a secondary teacher and says that masks in the classroom does impact on communication - at the moment the benefit of the extra protection outweighs this, but that doesn't mean that they should be kept when this is no longer true. They aren't cost-free in terms of their impact on interactions (or indeed on the environment - and they also aren't cost-free in the literal sense so they may not always be a good use of budget!)

RaspberryCoulis · 11/03/2021 09:56

@Tatum1234

I hope they don’t stay and will never wear one again once it’s no longer law. I still don’t think a homemade mask does much and was fine before catching the occasional cough and cold
Completely agree. Hideously awful things and the very second I can burn them I will.
StringersBell · 11/03/2021 10:00

@Hardbackwriter totally agree with you

HereComesATractor · 11/03/2021 10:47

Completely agree too Hardbackwriter