Dogs on Hospital Wards

Personally I agree as I feel it gives comfort to a patient, especially the elderly whom have pets.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40346539

I spent most of my crust earning years with a well known international company manufacturing and selling Hospital Products and Home Hygene Products.

Quite a lot of our products were for use in Operating Theatres, others were used just on wards, Some were made of fibrous materials others were plastic or metal. No matter from what they were made it was imperative that no micro organisms were introduced into the theatre or ward or where ever they were to be used.

To that end the vast majority of our Hospital Products and some domestic "First Aid" and cleanliness products were made and packed in "clean room" conditions (with operators suitably clad and cleansed)  prior to sterilisation either by steam or radiation.

During the last 20 years or so I was Quality Assurance and Technical Services Manager and so I have more than a passing knowledge of the needs of hospitals in the way of their need for  cleanliness due to my meetings with  various NHS managers.

I know that dogs can be sterilised, but the way they are done will not preclude their carrying about a load of micro organisms.

Hi catgate great response. Another fellow slave to protocol  :;smile:

I was for part of my career a trials research manager testing drugs on vulnerable patients and worked alongside pharmaceutical companies and the ethics committee plus attending meetings for days on  end  in Brussels sometimes to attain extra funding.

If ethics or the medicine control agency were unhappy the trial would be pulled, that included all aspects of hygiene. Paperwork, absolutely anything. Interviewing was tough when there was an audit.

I had to resign from that job due to pressure from my first husband. A job I would still love to do to this day. It was well paid but decide personal happiness was more important than financial gain. I got divorced, yipeeeee  :;smile:

I ended my career working for care of the elderly and loved the old guys and gals. Less money but with it, a sense of fun, plus no more personal stress.

I agree on the hygiene aspect but feel perhaps for the elderly or care homes a boon.

Hate to say it folks. British hospitals are disgustingly dirty due to cut backs,not theatres though. 

You are paying hospital managers many tiers to invent just another daft protocol.

One being patients should be treated like customers in a bank?

After a very emotional meeting with a top tier management number 8 on the list with all fellow colleagues, doctors and nurses everyone. I realised the NHS was no longer for me. 

If you can't hug a patient, reassure them due to another daft protocol.  Then goodbye NHS.

I finally retired, which was gut wrenching for me and staff alike.

There is simply no money to fund the NHS anymore.

I took redundancy, even then I was diddled out of my correct 42 years service, whilst top executives walk away with thousands.

I  did try to fight it but came to the conclusion it was better just to walk away.

But the chief Executive had the most awkward meeting with me. It seems 42 years of loyal service accounts for nothing. Whilst he sits in an ivory tower earning thousands for maybe attending twice a week.  He was told by me though. Looked very red if I remember

His secretary gave me a high five and said you are leaving at the right time.

I miss my patients and staff but not the NHS anymore.

I agree wtih Catgate even though his is a cat! - OHHS legislation cannot be ignore - sure take the patients out of the buildings into the healthy surrounds of the countryside were dogs do what ever they do but one outbreak inside will kill it all and it is bound to come!

hospitals are for the sick - what about your favorite parrot or hamster or chimpanzee?

davo wrote:

I agree wtih Catgate even though his is a cat! - OHHS legislation cannot be ignore - sure take the patients out of the buildings into the healthy surrounds of the countryside were dogs do what ever they do but one outbreak inside will kill it all and it is bound to come!

hospitals are for the sick - what about your favorite parrot or hamster or chimpanzee?

 There is far more infection in UK Davo due to monetary constraints. They used to have their own housekeeping team who did an amazing job. Some crack pot decided it would be cheaper to bring in outside contractors which became so expensive it blew the budget.

Only essential areas were cleaned no offices and staff toilets used by both sexes used the same toilet up to 50 staff. The toilet often blocked so you had to use other wards toilets who had the same problem.

They kept the main areas clean that the public saw but nowt else.

We cleaned and dusted and hovered our  own offices even during a busy shift. You can imagine how much germs there are.

Yes some patients and staff did resemble parrots other hamsters and chimpanzee but you have to be realistic. They are definitely zoo based creatures. :;smile:

They do have pets in residential homes often when patients have nowhere else to go as there house has to be sold to let them reside there or relatives do not want them living with them . Some change their tune when the find out the mum's home is going to be sold, many don't so pay the consequences of residential care costs. The hospital cannot hold onto patients indefinitely. 

. Can you imagine losing their loving pet dog or cat if relatives refuse to take them. Many were destroyed in the pound, which added more stress to the patient. 

pet mice?? or rats even! were would it stop?

davo wrote:

pet mice?? or rats even! were would it stop?

Davo  :;smile:  I know it's a wind up but what about a nice cat.


You are a nutter as they say in Wales 

Most hospitals are unable to perform to 100% for a variety of reasons. Over the years I have been into many but they all seem to have a problem somewhere (usually a human problem) 

One of my more “educational” hospital visits was to Cardiff.


We made some of our wound dressings with either a polyethylene backing or a polypropylene backing. The reason for the use of two different plastic materials was to facilitate the companies ability to sterilise some products being sold as “sterile” in the company's cobalt radiation unit. Polyethylene melts at somewhere 110 degrees C, whilst Polyprop. can stand 160degrees C.


One day I got a call from head office telling me that a certain man from Cardiff was complaining the we had sent them the wrong type of dressings and they were melting, and sticking together, when the were sterilised “en mass” in their “autoclaves” (posh word for steam steriliser).


This certain man was known by most of the suppliers of most requisites as a pain it the *****s.


We had a portable “heat bench”. A box about eighteen inches long that heated up to a higher temperature at one end than the other, and with the aid of some “heat sensitive” colour crayons, I could measure the temperature of the bench at any point. So off I set with my bench under my arm.


When I arrived I asked if they ever tested the dressings. “Oh yes we always test them.” said the man I had gone to see.
I asked how they tested them. The man waved to a young chap who was doing something in a corner. He rushed over and was instructed to take me “up the valley” to show me how they tested them.


He took me to a small room in a hospital “up the valley” and fished about in a cupboard and brought out an old fashioned “pressure cooker”. Into this he put a little water, followed by a little devise that supported the dressing, followed by the dressing. He then put the pressure cookers lid.


A gas ring was set on the bench and the pressure cooker went on top and the gas was ignited. After a few moments steam started to come out of the place where the“weight” should have gone. We then continued the “forced” chat about a variety of irrelevances for a couple of minutes until he removed the dressing to prove nothing.


On our return to the hospital in Cardiff I was told that in their steriliser room they had just taken out
a wire basket of newly sterilised dressings, of the faulty type, so we would go down and inspect it.


I was shown the evidence and there was no doubting the truth of their complaint that they were all sticking together.


It was obvious that the problem lay in the sterilisation process. So I asked at what temperature did they run their sterilisers and how many probes did they have in.. The man I asked did not know, and so the hospitals chief engineer was summoned. When he arrived he told me they only had one in each of their sterilisers and they were all situated in the back bottom of the steriliser in the steam outlet valve!!!!


Heat rises and so it follows that the temperature of every thing in the autoclave must be far higher than the temperature they imagined they were using.


A sudden drop in the jaw of the man I had come to see told me it was time I made a move towards the exit.


I think several people mentioned a change in his demeanour in the weeks that followed, and the chief engineer did not come off lightly.

Catgate greatest respect for you my friend.

I believe I know the hospital and believe I know the chief engineer. You were probably sent up to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil. I am still bound by confidentially laws even now and cannot discuss names of working members in the NHS.

Probably you were in the teaching hospital in Wales a big massive building.  I worked there.

You have only scraped the surface of problems with lack of equipment etc. Whilst the public remain very much unaware of the true picture. Again I am afraid fudged by politicians, apart from when there is an election.

Many staff were fatigued and disillusioned and left the service.  Most went to Australia or the Arab Emirates,  where they are treated much better with pay conditions and no lack of vital equipment. 

Apart from a few very obvious diseases like rabies, pets carry less human communicable bugs than humans do. The biggest risk to patients are visitors

yes but when animals carry disease 'they' don't care and don't know they are caring a disease - if human visitors are carrying a disease they can get it treated on the spot! and do tell once these little furry canines and felines have walked all over the beds - who changes the clothing and how often ? I happened to have a pet owl at home - permissible?? and I won't go anywhere without me matchbox full of holes with me caterpillars in it!

davo wrote:

yes but when animals carry disease 'they' don't care and don't know they are caring a disease - if human visitors are carrying a disease they can get it treated on the spot! and do tell once these little furry canines and felines have walked all over the beds - who changes the clothing and how often ? I happened to have a pet owl at home - permissible?? and I won't go anywhere without me matchbox full of holes with me caterpillars in it!

 Relatives are encouraged Not  to to visit patients when They  have colds . They use handkerchiefs, cough and sneeze into those. Hence germs go onto the patient when They are  going hug and kiss them.

I think you missed my main point Davo. 

I think animals woukd benefit the elderly in care and residential homes. And agree entirely with catgate comments as he has like myself worked in the service 

I think you know that too. So why introduce every animal you can think of you little tinker 

davo wrote:

yes but when animals carry disease 'they' don't care and don't know they are caring a disease - if human visitors are carrying a disease they can get it treated on the spot! and do tell once these little furry canines and felines have walked all over the beds - who changes the clothing and how often ? I happened to have a pet owl at home - permissible?? and I won't go anywhere without me matchbox full of holes with me caterpillars in it!

Davo, what do the little chaps like to eat?
Do they like live food? .. I've known more than one person go home from a stay in hospital and have caught lice.

Davo, put your pet dog and your wife in the boot of your car for a couple of hours. When you let them out you'll see who really loves you!  

Hello Sags! You're looking much more relaxed now you're not in charge.