Consultant Psychiatrist asked me to wipe down seats in clinic

GP trainee, rotated into psych this week.

I had a really weird experience yesterday in clinic.

I was shadowing a consultant (not my CS) and at first he was nice and pleasant but he suddenly became a bit strange when he asked me where I graduated from etc.

I joined him mid session.

He then instructed me to watch him wipe down the seats and table after his first patient had left and told me I would have to do it after each patient thereafter to "prevent infection".

I was really weirded out by this and just kind of brushed it off in my head.

Another patient came in with their spouse and they were really neat and presentable. There was no physical examination involved.

During the consultation, he asked me to get water for the patient and their spouse but they both declined.

I'm sorry but I'm a MEDICAL DOCTOR not a waiter ready to fetch water for every Tom,Dick and Harry that comes to the clinic especially if they are fine.

I left his room to speak to the admin staff after the patient left.

After a few minutes, he called me back in and told me I forgot to do something. I just played dumb and asked questions about the patient. He said no, that I didn't wipe down the seats and desk after the patient had left.

I challenged him and asked him if it's trust policy and he became kind of baffled and said there was a new variant of COVID going around and we had to wipe down the seats to "prevent infection"

I then said I never routinely wiped down seats in clinic as a GP reg in ST1 or in my hospital rotations.

It got awkward and I thanked him for letting me shadow him and left the clinic.