Whilst an alcohol swab will make a decent job of killing germs, unless there is enough of it and vigour rubbling, it will not necessarily shift rough food contamination.I have a few alcohol medi swabs in my meter case for the times I need to test and there is not a tap available.
@DCUKMod If the alcohol swabs are good enough for hospital departments / wards., GP surgery treatment rooms, pathology shops etc. for cleaning the area to stick a needle in it's good enough for me to do the same.Alcohol can also distort the readings.
So all of the blood tests I have had done at hospital departments / wards., GP surgery treatment rooms, pathology shops etc. are all wrong.Alcohol swabs can give a falsely lowered reading.
Laugh away. Modern U.K. ambulance guidelines are to not use them for this reason.So all of the blood tests I have had done at hospital departments / wards., GP surgery treatment rooms, pathology shops etc. are all wrong.
I don't think so...
From what I remember from the last time the QAS paramedics were at the bowls club treating someone, they used mediswabs before they put a drip in his arm.Laugh away. Modern U.K. ambulance guidelines are to not use them for this reason.
Not wrong just unreliable.So all of the blood tests I have had done at hospital departments / wards., GP surgery treatment rooms, pathology shops etc. are all wrong.
I don't think so...
So all of the blood tests I have had done at hospital departments / wards., GP surgery treatment rooms, pathology shops etc. are all wrong.
I don't think so...
From what I remember from the last time the QAS paramedics were at the bowls club treating someone, they used mediswabs before they put a drip in his arm.
Absolutely. Shoving a needle deep into a vein carries a significant infection risk, so we clean the site with alcohol. A simple fingerprick for capillary blood doesn’t carry the same risk, so we wipe the area with sterile water and dry it with gauze. The drop of blood is so small that the reading is easily corrupted by trace amounts of alcohol, plus repeated use of these wipes on the skin over time dries it out and thickens it - making cracks more likely (quite a big infection risk) and tests more painful in the long term.I think there’s a subtle difference between cleaning skin before a finger prick as opposed to inserting a drip or taking a sample direct from a vein, for two reasons. A finger prick is a tiny sample of blood from capillary veins, therefore any other fluid present can hugely dilute the specimen hence the need to dry your finger before the test plus there isn’t much risk of infection.
Inserting a drip or taking a venous sample is much more invasive so sterility is way more important, then the blood is a larger sample and enters the specimen tube directly bypassing any moisture on the skin so very little chance of diluting the sample.
That’s my understanding anyway
This is what I tend to do myself!I just squeeze out the first blob and wipe it off on a clean tissue then use the next drop if I can't wash. Testing showed this gives a similar result to washing, rinsing and wiping finger on clean paper and better than washing then using a towel to dry my hands.
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