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Health Bill

Many years ago—I do not want to say how many—plastic aprons and gloves were commonplace throughout wards. Before a nurse went to any patient, she would take off her existing apron and put on a new one; indeed, that is what I did. Aseptic technique was drilled into us as nurses. Everything that we did involved aseptic technique, particularly when dealing with patients who were vulnerable and at risk. That same mental attitude toward asepsis and changing gowns and gloves is no longer present in wards; it simply does not happen any more. In the past, the provision of such gowns was prescribed. Would it not be appropriate, therefore, for the code to make reference to the provision of freely available gowns, so that what happened in the 1970s and 1980s—the constant changing of gowns and gloves—happens again?