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Unhappy about our long awaited spa day due to non vaccinated therapist

(37 Posts)
mrsgreenfingers56 Mon 18-Oct-21 17:49:53

I would really value the opinion from Gransnet here.

My husband and I finally had our a spa day last week which had been booked well before Covid and obviously cancelled. We left it for ages before we felt everything was OK to go and finally went. The therapist who was treating my husband told him in conversation she hadn't been vaccinated as "I am a holistic therapist and believe the body heals itself"

When we met up outside the treatment room he told me this and I was really horrified, I just couldn't believe that a person who was so close to a client and using their hands for the treatment was not vaccinated.

I asked the lady on reception and she said she was vaccinated but the spa didn't have any hard rules. Both myself and husband are double jabbed and awaiting the 3rd vac very soon. The spa didn't ask if we had received the vacs.

I wasn't happy at all and sent an email to the manager saying it should have been a pleasant experience (which it was) but left me feeling somewhat stressed. I personally feel it is morally wrong for a therapist not to have received the vaccine and by choice.

Am I being over the top here? What do you all think?

Thanks

Sparklefizz Tue 19-Oct-21 09:36:34

My dentist made it all clear right from when he reopened last year about the Covid situation at his practice re vaccinations once they became appropriate, and the Covid precautions the practice had put in place. They have never changed these, even when rules were relaxed, and I feel happy going there. They have become my benchmark.... just wish my doctors' surgery were as careful shock

Sparklefizz Tue 19-Oct-21 09:38:52

"I am a holistic therapist and believe the body heals itself"

If only that were true ..... there would be millions still alive.

H1954 Tue 19-Oct-21 09:41:40

No you're not being OTT. Just because she's a holistic therapist doesn't mean that every client she treats has to believe in it all too. You went for a spa treatment in good faith for your own benefits.
I certainly wouldn't return there or even recommend it to anyone else. Shame on the management.

BigBertha1 Tue 19-Oct-21 09:48:42

I always ask anyone who treat me for anything if they are vaccinated in the nicest way possible. If they are not I go somewhere else. DH and I are immunocompromised and it would be irresponsible of us to put ourselves in harms way and then expect the NHS to bail us out. Our bodies have not healed themselves of our various ailments and we dont expect them to we are not robots..

Kali2 Tue 19-Oct-21 09:55:51

And what do you do in an emergency, in A&E, or if you need to have an operation, where there will be 10 or more people present, when you are under aneasthetics?

The fact is, currently, in law, they do not have to, and they don't have to tell you. Their right not to be vaccinated trumps your right to know and be protected. It's wrong, I feel- but it is how it is.

A friend of ours was sent to A&E as he his heart was badly failing- and was tranferred to a famous Hospital for a complicated heart op the next day. Then the Casualty department where he went first phoned the other hospital to say someone had tested positive for Covid where he was waiting the previous day. That was after he had the op, and he then tested posititive and was very sick and had to be put in coma and respirator so he would not cough ...He was very very lucky to survive, but it was touch and go and made his recovery so much more difficult and slow.

I know several nurses who are not vaccinated, and 2 doctors.

trisher Tue 19-Oct-21 10:00:50

I think the spa has a duty to inform customers that not all of its therapists are vaccinated and offer an alternative treatment with a vaccinated person if you are concerned about this.

eazybee Tue 19-Oct-21 11:42:13

The point is, Spa treatment is not medical, and it was your choice to take it, therefore the onus was on you to check about vaccinations before you allowed anyone to work on you in close physical proximity.

rosie1959 Tue 19-Oct-21 11:55:01

trisher

I think the spa has a duty to inform customers that not all of its therapists are vaccinated and offer an alternative treatment with a vaccinated person if you are concerned about this.

The spa would not necessary know which of their employees are vacinnated

LtEve Tue 19-Oct-21 12:33:46

I have never thought of asking anyone who treats me, either medically or otherwise, if they’ve been vaccinated. To be honest even if they said they had I would have no way of knowing if they were telling the truth or not.

trisher Tue 19-Oct-21 13:42:53

rosie1959

trisher

I think the spa has a duty to inform customers that not all of its therapists are vaccinated and offer an alternative treatment with a vaccinated person if you are concerned about this.

The spa would not necessary know which of their employees are vacinnated

The spa could collect data about their employees and use that data providing they can justify its use. I would imagine the close personal contact between customers and therapists and the possibility that a customer might have health problems would provide such justification ico.org.uk/global/data-protection-and-coronavirus-information-hub/coronavirus-recovery-data-protection-advice-for-organisations/vaccination-and-covid-pass-checks/

mrsgreenfingers56 Wed 20-Oct-21 15:28:43

Hello again, yes the ladies who said I should have checked before are right. I just assumed (wrongly) that once the spa was open staff would be vaccinated and I have been rather naive on this. I have finally had a reply from management who said he was sorry to hear of my upset but cannot force staff to take the injection. Oh well one lives and learns as they say.