AN NHS worker was made to feel like he “had a disease” after he was “kicked out” of a bank in Cardonald.

Tony Brown was in conversation with a member of staff at the TSB on Paisley Road West, when he mentioned that he had been in contact with a Covid patient, as part of his job.

The 33-year-old, who works as a porter in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, was then asked to leave the premises.

Shortly after, he said a member of staff started cleaning the chair he had been sitting on.

Tony said: “I was chatting away with the worker and we were talking about my work, as you do. I said that the other day was the first I had dealt with a Covid patient in a while, because it’s been calming down and she told me she had to go speak with her manager.

“When she came back, she requested that I leave, and I asked why and she told me because I had been in contact with somebody who had the virus, but I said ‘listen, that’s my job’.

“When I walked out the room, there was someone cleaning where I had been sitting waiting to go in. I thought it was so disrespectful.

“It was the pure cheek of cleaning the chair right in front of my face. It was absolutely bang out of order.

“I was appalled. I walked out and felt like I had a disease, that’s the way they made me feel.”

Glasgow Times:

Tony, from Linthouse, explained to the staff members that he gets tested every week, wears full PPE at work and has had his two vaccinations.

He added: “I think it’s quite disgusting, I was really quite shocked. I said to them ‘are you being serious? You are papping me out the bank because I work in a hospital’.

“They should have signs up saying if you work in the hospital don’t come into the bank.”

TSB has since apologised and admitted that, in this instance, the situation was not handled in the correct way.

Tony, who said he felt discriminated against, said a member of staff phoned him to finish the process of setting up a savings account.

He said: “She phoned me back and I said to her what happened was shocking. I ended up not even opening an account, I felt absolutely shocked that I thought ‘I’m not even doing this’.

“I said to them ‘this is absolutely shocking behaviour, you have handled this so wrong, disgracefully’.

“How many people go into that bank every day? I told them lots of their customers will be NHS staff and carers.

“I just couldn’t get my head around it. I mean are we not allowed to go anywhere?”

In a statement, a TSB spokesman said: “We have the utmost respect for the outstanding job being undertaken by NHS and hospital workers and having investigated this incident, we are confident that the branch staff were only trying to do the right thing at a sensitive moment for Glasgow in relation to Covid-19.

“The customer concerned had intimated that he had been in close contact with somebody who had tested positive for the virus, and while we will always try to deal with those issues sensitively, we do not always get it completely right and we are sorry that the customer feels let down.

“We routinely update our advice to branch staff in line with the Scottish Government’s wider approach and will be doing so again in the light of this issue.”

Despite making it clear that NHS workers need to go about their daily life too, UNISON added that everyone has had to adapt to the pandemic.

Willie Duffy, head of health at the union, said: “This past year our NHS staff have been heroic. They have literally been on the frontline, leaving their loved ones to care for ours.

“Our NHS workers are just ordinary people who have been thrown into an extraordinary situation and they too need to go shopping, do their banking and pick their kids up from school - if anyone knows how to keep safe and hygienic our NHS workers do.

“However, this past year has been a difficult time for everyone and we need to be kind as we all adjust to the new world we’re living in. None of us has got everything right.”

Meanwhile, the health board has been left “disappointed” following the news.

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We are incredibly thankful to our staff who have been working on the frontline.We’re disappointed to hear one of our staff members was treated this way. We want to remind the public that all hospital staff wear PPE which protects both themselves and patients from the virus.”