We must all consider our hygiene routines

Having spent a good proportion of

my professional career engaged in software and electronic system safety considerations I am used to spotting risky behaviours.

The shops and online suppliers have rapidly run out of anti-bacterial and anti-virus gels in the face of the coronavirus epidemic.

In its responses so far, the government has emphasised that regular hand washing is an effective precaution.

However, there always is the possibility that something has been overlooked and safety committees often call on people from a number of fields to try to ensure all aspects have been covered.

Looking for instance at our wonderful local hospital, the RUH, there will be many vulnerable older people and those with temporarily or permanently weakened immune systems there at any one time.

Already there are many anti-bac dispensers dotted around at the entrance to wards and it is important all visitors use these both entering and leaving.

However, it seems to me that as this virus can be infectious for quite a period before a carrier shows symptoms, a much closer scrutiny of the possible paths to infection is necessary.

As an example, the Atrium has a cafe where much mingling takes place, patients and visitors cross paths, pick cutlery from the same container and shake hands etc.

There is also a lavatory there for public use. But if someone using the loo is a carrier and coughs into their hand, then takes the hygiene precaution of washing their hands it still may not be enough, because the tap handle is the weakest link.

After washing hands one turns the tap off with the same hand that was infected before washing so the virus is back on the fingers.

The loo visitor may then walk around the hospital assuming they are low risk. This reinforces the need to be scrupulous in asking visitors to use the anti-bac at ward entrances.

Surgeons have of course known of this possibility for a long time and have wash basins with specially extended arms so that they can be turned off with the elbow.

During the next few months we all need to consider our hygiene routines, where we have been a bit lackadaisical and think of ourselves like surgeons, i.e. as at a higher risk of infecting others and causing them great suffering, than we were likely to do previously.

Nick Hales Larkhall