The fashion doctor

“Who'd want to be a surgeon? Study for years and years, only to have to wear pyjamas to work every day!” my flatmate commented. And she's right: despite their portrayal in TV hospital dramas as outfits for seduction, scrubs are not attractive clothes. Monochrome and sack-like, scrubs are a triumph of function over form. This got me thinking: what should doctors wear? Does it matter?

Ask the infection control department of your teaching hospital what doctors should wear, and they are likely to emphasise cleanliness. Ask hospital administration and the word “cheap” will soon enter the conversation. Scrubs represent the marriage of these practical considerations: they're clean, cheap and two sizes fit most (if you pull hard enough on the drawstrings). Certainly, I don't think anyone could justify spending public health dollars on designer scrubs. Hence my surprise on discovering TC's Uniforms, a US company that markets a variety of fashion scrubs.1

But doctors don't spend all their time wandering around in scrubs. And in many of the hospitals in which I've trained, medical staff are distinguished by the fact that they don't have a uniform. With this privilege comes the timeless fashion quandary, “What should I wear?”