I’d spent most of the previous night up and wide awake as my daughter, (who on her way to visit had sat alongside a rail passenger with an obvious cold) was admitted to hospital having suffered a dangerously elevated resting heart rate for several hours - the Covid-19 symptoms she was suffering being of secondary concern. She’d been asked to do a Covid test before I took her to hospital and this proved negative. Knowing what we do about how inaccurate these tests can be, I was surprised that a further test wasn’t carried out by hospital staff, since her bed was in a ‘Covid Isolation area’. A change in protocol perhaps? 

 

I asked her this morning about her perception of the cleaning practices (she’s an ex-cleaner) and her response was that everything was very clean but that she’d felt sorry for a cleaner who was hobbling around emptying bins while suffering from a bad back. That’s dedication for you… She also said that a cleaner came in immediately she left the following morning, to make the room clean and safe for the next occupant. Her other point was that she was impressed that the washroom had been designed to be easy to clean but that sadly there wasn’t any handwash for at least six hours. I asked if she’d reported it and she said “No”. That really surprised me too, bearing in mind the comments I often make about the general public needing to take responsibility when it comes to our washrooms: Leave it as you would wish to find it! I embarrassed her with a ‘well there you go then’ look, which was duly acknowledged, but I’m now wondering how many others may have reported a lack of soap – if any – or whether it had been reported long before she arrived and nothing had been done to rectify the problem?