Would you eat in a restaurant where only half of the staff wash their hands?

A few months ago, in the late autumn, I took Viv to Bedford Hospital for an appointment. There was a big poster near the canteen charting how many staff had had a flu jab: it was about half of the total. Beneath it was a slogan encouraging staff to have a free jab.

'I don't understand', I remember saying to Viv, 'why aren't all staff required to have a flu jab? Every year the NHS complains about being busy, partly because of flu; if staff aren't having a jab, they could be passing it on! It's crazy!' We'd already had ours, because of her condition Viv gets a free one, as do I as her carer.

Viv's now in Addenbrooke's, it's March, and there are similar posters up around the wards and corridors, although not quite so visible as the one at Bedford; they became a little more relevant yesterday when her bed bay had to be subject to 'barrier nursing' because one of the patients is suspected to have flu. So, all staff and visitors have to put on aprons, masks and gloves before entering, and take them off when leaving. This slows down the entry and exit of staff from the area and, yes, does impact the quality of care.

I accept that you can't always prevent infection outbreaks in hospitals, but they could take 'reasonable precautions' to prevent them. It's like restaurant staff washing their hands, surely - a precaution that the employer can require staff to take to ensure that all those (employees, customers, patients) for whom he has a duty of care are indeed exposed to as little risk as possible. Indeed, shouldn't the hospital require all on site (visitors as well as staff) to have had a flu jab?

Perhaps someone claims 'human rights' or something as an excuse for no such rules being in place.  I don't know about you, if I found out a restaurant owner respected his staff's right to not wash their hands, I'd boycott the place.

Ah, but we don't have the choice with hospitals, do we....?