Eagle eyed patients and visitors to wards at Ashford and St. Peter’s recently would have noticed a change in the appearance of some of the staff. Consultants with no ties and not a long sleeve in sight! But rather than showing slipping standards these things signify a change for the benefit of patients’ healthcare as part of the updated dress code policy which aims to increase the effectiveness of hygiene on wards, and also to provide a cohesive image for the Trust.

Some of the key points within the new ‘dress code’ will help to make hygiene easier for clinical staff. In any clinical area or in activity involving patient contact, ties (other than bow-ties) are no-longer allowed to be worn as they perform no beneficial function in patient care, are laundered rarely but often worn daily and have been shown to be colonised by pathogens. Also for similar reasons of hygiene the Trust now operates the Department of Health’s national policy for all clinical staff to be ‘bare below the elbows’. This applies when visiting clinical areas or where patient contact is involved (e.g. wards and outpatients). The policy states that all staff should dress and wear clothing that makes hand hygiene both easy and satisfactory.  This means no long sleeves (e.g. jackets) and shirts should either short sleeved or shirt sleeves should be rolled up to the elbow.

Commenting on the new policy Director of Nursing and Operations, Michaela Morris, said: “Our Dress Code Policy reflects the professionalism and high standards of behaviour and appearance that Trust staff wish to deliver to our patients. Each member of staff will very visibly be supporting ongoing work throughout our two hospitals to maintain our high standards of Infection Control. The ‘Bare below the elbows’ and ‘No ties’ policy may become a talking point, but that is a good thing because we need to continually reinforce the “Clean your hands” message whenever possible.”

This new dress code policy brings the Trust in line with national guidelines issued by the Department of Health, Uniforms and Work wear policy 2007.

Other areas covered include:

·          Foot ware

·          Tattoos

·          Jewellery and piercing

·          Facial hair

·          Clothing worn for religious or cultural reasons

·          Staff Identification

·          And a whole section on the various uniforms within the Trust.