British female Muslim medics ignore hygiene rules over modesty issues

By M&C Bizarre Feb 12, 2008, 21:25 GMT

EPA/JALIL REZAYEE

Female Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules designed to halt the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion.

The Telegraph, a UK newspaper, reports that females training in several hospitals in England are balking at removing their arm coverings to scrub up in prep for an operation.

Universities and NHS (National Health Service-Britain's socialized medicine overseer) are worried, according to the Telegraph, that more Muslim women medics will disregard the Department of Health guidance, introduced this month, which stipulates that all doctors must be "bare below the elbow".

The Telegraph cited the minutes of a clinical academics' meeting at Liverpool University which exposed the fact that female Muslim students at Alder Hey children's hospital had objected to rolling up their sleeves to wear gowns.

Also the same concerns were echoed at Leicester University. Minutes from a medical school committee said that "a number of Muslim females had difficulty in complying with the procedures to roll up sleeves to the elbow for appropriate handwashing".

The Telegraph cited that Sheffield University reported a case of a Muslim medic who refused to "scrub" because her forearm was "exposed.

Dr Mark Enright, professor of microbiology at Imperial College London, said: "To wash your hands properly, and reduce the risks of MRSA and C.difficile, you have to be able to wash the whole area around the wrist.

"I don't think it would be right to make an exemption for people on any grounds. The policy of bare below the elbows has to be applied universally."

Dr Charles Tannock, a Conservative MEP and former hospital consultant, told the Telegraph: "These students are being trained using taxpayers' money and they have a duty of care to their patients not to put their health at risk.

"Perhaps these women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines that everyone else has to follow."

The Islamic Medical Association reiterated that all parts of the body save for the eyes and hands are to be covered to comply with Islam.