Recently, while I was in a public hospital to visit an unwell relative and had the opportunity to observe doctors making their routine ward rounds with their nurses. There was also another group of students with their lecturer.

They appeared to spend quality time with each patient in the ward and the nurses also seemed to be quite helpful and attentive. As these doctors, nurses and students attended to their patients, I however, could not recall seeing any of them either washing their hands or changing their gloves before attending to the next patient.

Does this not pose a health risk to the doctors and nurses as well as to the many patients and their families too? Couldn't this be one of the main modes of transmitting infectious diseases in hospitals?

Even if hospitals clean their corridors and sterilise the air, rooms, wards and equipment, the superbugs are now given free transportation by medical staff themselves.

And dentists, too, may be spreading infections as some of them treat two patients simultaneously. Do they change their gloves for each patient, every time? How about the disposable cover of the digital ear thermostat, pillows on the examination beds in clinics and imaging rooms and likewise a hundred other things?

Who ensures that all these healthcare givers, whether in private or public hospitals and clinics, are practicing only the very best form of hygiene continuously?

Many medical staff protect themselves against infections with their gloves and masks. Yes, it may protect the doctor and the nurse attending to the sick patient, but who protects the next patient the same doctor and nurse touches with the contaminated gloves?

With the recent increase in infectious diseases like tuberculosis in Malaysia, doctors, nurses and healthcare givers in clinics and hospitals could do well to wash their hands and change their gloves with each patient.

Yes, it may be costlier and yes, they may even have to do it hundreds of times a day. But is there any other alternative?