No fun(nel)

Who would have thought an obscure bit of plastic would be such a big bone of contention?
This antiquated device is the 'spittoon' at one of my places of work (ie a patient will rinse at the end of treatment then spit into this)
My philosophy in my line of work has always been 'would I have that near my mouth?'. If its a no, then I refuse point blank to have it anywhere near my patients.
For this reason, I relegated the device to the cupboard, but it has been resurrected today by the powers that be.
I realise that patients want to rinse after treatment, but from an infection control point of view, I would rather not rinse than use this!

I despise this thing with a passion, for a number of reasons:
1. It leaks if not seated into the tubing properly
2. If it gets to close to the patient then it sucks face. Literally.
3. I only have one, so EVERYONE spits in the same funnel. Although it is wiped with disinfectant between patients I feel this isn't sufficient.
The argument today was that numerous patients spit in the proper 'bowl' type spittoons and there isn't an issue regarding infection control, but they don't physically come into contact with those types; they can spit from above; plus they are made from a more durable, bacteria resistant material. With this one, people tend to wipe their lower lip around the rim to catch any drips. Eww!
This is plastic and we still haven't decided whether or not it will withstand the 135C heat of the autoclave.
Melted funnel could well be on the agenda for next weeks blip......watch this space!