Source: U.K. hospitals issue doctors’ dress code - Yahoo! News

Well this just in. The UK has now issued a new dress code for their doctors. The have decided to ban all neckties and long sleeved shirts. Jewelry has also been banned. And to top it all off, the physician’s white coat has been banned as well. Doctors will now be required to wear short-sleeved scrubs. This is a big change for a group of people who strive for professionalism and have long insisted on a shirt, tie, and nice slacks underneath a white coat.

They say that this is a health concern. The ties are being blamed for being a sink hole for bacteria because they are hardly ever washed. Personally, I don’t think I have ever thrown my tie in the laundry. Besides, I think they need to be dry-cleaned.

One study, published in 2004, reported that in one New York hospital, nearly half of the doctor’s neckties carried at least one pathogen.

Will the U.S. also do the same thing? I don’t really think so. My guess is that the dress code change will not result in any significant decrease in infections. The only thing that will result is a patient confused as to which person is their physician, their nurse, or the hospital janitor.