If doctors abandon the white coat, semiotic confusion would rule

Indians have an insouciant disregard for medical precautions that the West takes seriously, including protocols regarding the sale of schedule H drugs. It is not surprising, therefore, that our medical professionals still brazenly persist with a practice that has apparently lost its legitimacy elsewhere. Worse, the Indian public at large remains ignorant of their flagrant defiance of international norm if not law.

Had an Indian doctor, Edmond Fernandes, not lashed out at the dangerous garment called the long-sleeved white coat in the latest issue of The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) this week, even fewer people would have known that it has been banned in the UK in 2007 – where bare forearms are now a must – for harbouring bacteria.

While the pristine hue of traditional coats may indeed belie their true hygiene status, they probably carry no more germs than other apparel medical staff wear. So singling them out for proscription does seem unfair. After all, lab coats are the only way many Indians instantly recognise them in hospitals, not to mention movies, public service advisories and ads for toothpaste, sinus pills and health drinks. Unless medical staff are offered a similarly powerful alternative meme, it is unlikely they will doff their white coats willingly in India.