Don't think for one minute I don't take the potential of this new virus seriously. However I prefer to keep everything in perspective. As a nurse, infection control is probably the most important thing I do. I always follow Standard Precautions plus Additional Precautions as required, for example Contact and Droplet Precautions. I have been constantly exposed to infection, such as MRSA so I treat everyone as infectious. Flu and gastro don't bother me ... I never contract them and I never have the flu shot either. This swine flu virus is different I'll admit. However I see no reason to panic as that is counterproductive. We all need to take precautions, especially if we have a weakened immune system. It would be appropriate that the Health Dept offered clear and simple instructions on the precautions people should take to protect themselves.
However I am more worried about third world doctors and nurses and their abysmal lack of basic hygiene. I have been going on about this for years. Now you have seen the results with Dr Death in Qld. A doctor who actually told the infection control nurse who was trying to get him to put on a pair of examination gloves, "I don't have germs." Can you actually believe that!! That any surgeon would actually examine a patient who had just had an operation and put his ungloved and unwashed hands on the wound?? And continue doing this from patient to patient?? No small wonder his patients kept dying from complications!! And that the hospital administrators ignored this after being repeatedly told by nurses and other doctors that this was happening. That nurses had to hide patients and secretly transfer them to other hospitals!! This is the standard of medical care we are getting from the third world, admittedly probably the worst example. Just make sure you have private health insurance and can choose your own western trained doctor in a private hospital!
Too Right SB....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/10/2442092.htm?section=australia
AMA defends screening of international doctorsPosted Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:27am AEDT
Updated Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:02am AEDT
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says Australia's screening procedures for international doctors are the same as those of every other country.
Yesterday it was revealed that a doctor who arrived from India in March and was working at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide has tuberculosis.I agree that Indian doctors/nurses are the main worry at present. Their standards of hygiene and training are not as high as ours but you cannot say anything to them. I know this because I worked with an Indian nurse who maintained she was the equivalent of an RN in India. She was working as an AIN and simply would not follow instructions. Her work was of a poor standard as was her literacy however she had the arrogance to believe she should have been employed as an RN here!
