I said that the doctor should have found some way to treat her, e.g. by decontaminating her first, burning her clothes, etc. But P-Marlowe was right about the fact that, because she was there for elective surgery, not for bedbug treatment, he was under no ethical or professional obligation to treat her at all. I stand corrected in that regard.
The hospital needs to have a protocol to deal with patients possibly infested with bed bugs - a sort of de lousing and steam clean their clothes. There must be others with the same problem, and if they don’t admit it to it - as this woman did - they can’t simply be sent away. Also, they might come in with a life threatening condition, so it would be unethical not to treat them.
Always right is right (again!) about the prevalence of this problem. There was a skin crawling article in the London Review of Books about the onward march of bedbugs. They can sneak into the most elite areas. And other insects too. In Sydney, Australia, there have been several seasons in the past when FLEAS took off. You might think that only a very dirty person would have fleas in their house - but not so. Some people affected had no pets and were up in high storey flats! Fortunately, fleas are easier to knock out with insecticides.
I suppose that the greenies will ban all insecticides, and we will all be bitten to death.