in uniform

Nagaon, Dec. 16: The Nagaon administration has made apron compulsory for doctors during duty hours.

In a direction issued recently by deputy commissioner M. Angamuthu, all health officers, including those working in the interior areas of the district, have been asked to use apron while on duty.

“A white apron, along with an identity card, will help a patient spot particular doctor whom he or she would be meet. It does not matter where the doctor, whether at outdoor or surgical ward or in the operation theatre, apron and identity card are compulsory,” said a district administration source.

According to the source, the same norms of uniform would be strictly followed in case of all the nurses and officers engaged in the National Rural Health Mission work.

“All Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery and General Nursing and Midwifery nurses have to be in uniform. The health workers engaged in hospital management work will use light yellow apron as their uniform during office hours,” he said. Apron as a uniform for the health staff has been introduced only in Nagaon district.

The district administration said the new initiative was to bring discipline in the hospital management. It covers all the doctors of 100 government health institution of the central Assam district.

“When a layman visits the hospital, the colour of the uniform might help him identify the employees. The woman in white dress with a half apron is a nurse, the person in full apron is a doctor and the person with light yellow apron is a health worker. The identity card will tell the visitor the name and department of the doctor,” said Apurba Sarma, joint director, health service, Nagaon.

“Why would we hesitate to use apron? It is our uniform. But if both nurses and female doctors use aprons, how will a visitor differentiates a doctor from a nurse? I feel there should be more difference so that a visitor could identify a doctor at the first sight,” said a senior woman doctor of Nagaon BPC Hospital.

Sarma said punctuality and sincerity for the employees of the hospitals are also part of this initiative.

“Each of the employees has to be present in his office during working hours. His or her absence will be considered an offence,” he said.

This is the second step of the Nagaon administration to tighten the noose around the errant government employees.

A couple of weeks back, the administration had held up salaries of the employees of nine state government offices for their alleged absence from office during working hours.