Hospital cafeterias

The standard of hygiene in hospital cafeterias should be exemplary, no? Well, at least that’s what you would expect. To Haris Ibrahim’s horror, it may not always be the case, as he wonders Is this how hospitals generate patients?

One sip of the tea, and then it happened.
One fly landed on the edge of the plate.
Shooed it away and another one landed on the table, just as the first took off.
I called over a lady who appeared to me to be the supervisor, and complained about the flies.
Her reply shocked me.
“Cannot do anything, lah”, she said.
I pointed out to her that this was a private hospital, I was a patient there, and that we were entitled to expect that the entire premise of the hospital, including the cafeteria, ought to be free of flies.
“Do everything also cannot, lah. The floor also we clean with medicine also cannot”, she persisted.
I pointed out to her that there was no electric insect zapper in the cafeteria.
She insisted that it did not work.
I then suggested that the entrance to the cafeteria be fitted with a glass door to keep the flies out.
“Then patients on wheelchair want to come in will complain, lah”, she shot back.
By now, I was exasperated.
I started taking photographs of flies on tables and chairs.
mewhat agitated and she flew into proactive action.
She grabbed what looked like the half-remains of what used to be a fly swatter and went about swatting the flies wherever she found them.
I went over and photographed the bin under the wash basin and more flies on tables.
“Enough, lah mister. No more photographs”, she pleaded.

Heck, flies are the bane of our local restaurants. How they can find their way into a hospital cafeteria GOK. This is a heads up for all hospitals to be mindful that they are setting an example here.