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No more ties in U.K. hospitals

London: British hospitals are banning neckties, long sleeves and jewellery in an effort to stop the spread of hospital-borne infections, according to rules published on Monday.

Hospital dress codes typically urge doctors to look professional, which, for male practitioners, has usually meant wearing a tie. But as concern over hospital-borne infections has intensified, doctors are taking a closer look at their clothing.

“Ties are rarely laundered but worn daily,” the Department of Health said. “They perform no beneficial function in patient care and have been shown to be colonised by pathogens.”

The new regulations would mean an end to doctors’ traditional white coats, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said. Fake nails, jewellery and watches, which the department warned cold harbour germs, are also out. He said the “bare below the elbow” dress code would help prevent the spread of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the deadly bacteria resistant to nearly every available antibiotic. Popularly known as a ‘superbug,’ MRSA accounts for more than 40 per cent of in-hospital blood infections in Britain.

Because the bacteria are so hard to kill, health care workers have instead focussed on containing its spread through improvements to hospital hygiene.

A 2004 study of doctors’ neckties at a New York hospital found that nearly half of them carried at least one species of infectious microbe. — AP

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