Metal speculums used multiple times

Ever wonder who the metal specs were used on before you? Unlike the plastic ones used once and thrown out. A teen for the first time maybe. How well are they cleaned?

Yes with the prevalance of infections they are very throughy cleaned and sterilized

Disposable stainless steel ones are readily available now - at about the price of the fragile Chinese plastic ones.

Why take the risk of infection by not sterilising correctly or worse still breaking a plastic one in someone's vagina? The labour cost of cleaning must far outweigh the cost of disposables.

I was at my gyno's office yesterday for some tests. When I was leaving I saw a nurse was wiping clean a metal speculum (I assume she was going to put it to be sterilized or to be sent to have done) she was cleaning it enough that it wasn't for a 'one time use deal'.

I got really turned on by it because I couldn't wait for it to be in me, and I wouldn't mind for her to do it either. And this is after I had an internal ultrasound.

Funny you should mention that. When I was a veterinary surgical tech, we had to take our turns and rotate through the pack room. Most people dreaded it, I really enjoyed it. There was something gratifying about receiving a table full of instruments, cleaning, maintaining, sterilizing, wrapping and packing them to be turned around and used again. Kind of like mowing the lawn, instant visual gratification.

Lebeau13..What type of tests were you in for? Metal speculums are used over and over. She was getting ready to put them back in the drawer in the exam table for the next day. How many times do you think it was used before? Most medical instruments are either disposable or have a protective covering but not metal speculums. Was she wearing gloves to clean them? What size speculum are you? Did you have a vaginal ultrasound?

I would certainly hope she was NOT getting ready to put it back in the drawer for use the next day. Stainless steel instruments that are used more than once MUST be sterilized by heat, chemical or gas methods before they can be re-used. You don't just wipe them off and use them on the next person through the door. Ewwww.

If you import doctors from third world countries then don't assume they clean the speculum first.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3499909.stm

What a point you raise smith, and thank you for doing so.

Being a UK member you'll know what concerns many patients have over this sort of thing in our NHS, from neglect of infants dying through wrong (or nil) diagnosis, right through to the elderly lying for days sometimes in unchanged soiled beds. MRSA and C-diff has been rife. It's supposedly on the wane now. Really? Maybe real causes of death are being sidestepped and we're back to the old days when doctors didn't know the cause so it was 'Died of Old Age'!

You're right though smith when you draw attention to the predominance of doctors, in all areas of the NHS, coming from abroad with qualifications from obscure third world medical schools and even with forged documents, hardly able to speak English or write scripts with correct dosages. And why are they here? - because all our good doctors are now in NZ, OZ or the US.

The real frightening thing though about the story you linked to is the casual attitude of the authorities. We read in there:-

NHS Lanarkshire stressed that the risk of infection from the equipment, which was predominantly used in cervical smear tests, was "very low" [color=#0000ff]WHAT IS LOW? SURELY SHOULD BE NIL?[/color]

good practice was not always followed between April 2000 and November 2003. [color=#0000ff]OVER [u]THREE[/u][/color][/u] YEARS?

There is a theoretical risk....there are no known cases of infection [color=#0000ff]THEORETICAL? NONE [u]KNOWN?[/u][/color][/u]

.....received a report from the health trust and was considering whether disciplinary action should be taken. [color=#0000ff]CONSIDERING?[/color]

Last year, the medical practice operated by Dr Tahira Idrees was investigated over out-of-date vaccines [color=#0000ff] NO ACTION TAKEN?[/color]

No doubt 'Lessons will be learned' ! I'm considering making a CD on which this phrase will be repeated over and over again for an hour, and selling it to the NHS and Social Services, and another with the phrase 'Ooops, it's happened again'

Interesting point you raise BigK, particularly where MRSA and c.diff are concerned. Having suffered from both, I can attest as to how awful they can be and how easily they can be contracted.

I don't have much that's good to say about the health care delivery system in the US, but I am thrilled that CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is going to make MRSA (and probably c.diff as well) a "Hospital Acquired Infection". In other words, if the patient contracts the infection within 60 days of admission as an inpatient to a health care facility, CMS will not reimburse the hospital for the charges, nor can the hospital bill the patient for the expenses incurred. In other words, the facility has to "eat" their mistakes.

In the US, CMS generally leads the way where policy is concerned, so there is little doubt that other insurers will do the same. This will only encourage health care facilties to become more vigilant in infection control.