Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) has directed its doctors, medical students and paramedical staff to come to duty wearing uniforms and identity cards, failing which they will face action.
The hospital administration issued the directive on Thursday afternoon. The order has to be followed within seven days. Patna Medical College principal S.N. Sinha said doctors and paramedics seen without their uniforms and identity cards will be punished but did not divulge the nature of action.
The high court had taken cognisance of doctors not wearing uniform while on duty after social activist Vikas Chandra, better known as Guddu Baba, brought the matter to its attention. The activist told the court that it was difficult to differentiate PMCH doctors from attendants and outsiders in the video footage of a brawl on the hospital premises on May 15. The court had directed Guddu to produce an earlier Patna High Court order in which PMCH officials were directed to wear uniforms on duty.
Principal Sinha said undergraduate and postgraduate students, doctors and paramedical staff all need to be in uniform - in doctor's coat with nametags.
Some doctors in PMCH said the dress code would inculcate discipline among the staff, while some others ridiculed it. They said it would only mean security hassles for doctors.
"I don't see the logic behind implementing a dress code. Patients' attendants will easily recognise the doctors and no one will be able to escape from an assault if any," said a doctor in the anaesthesia department. "When attendants attack doctors at the hospital, you cannot imagine how they escape from the hospital. The hospital administration should first strengthen security and then think about implementing a dress code."
Sanjeev Ranjan Kumar Singh, a doctor in the plastic surgery department, said: "Hospitals across the world follow a dress code for doctors. It's good because it brings discipline among doctors."
He added: "Some times, patients and their attendants face difficulty in tracing doctors. So, if the dress code norm is implemented, doctors will be easy to find."
