The clothes worn in practice have a significant role to play in the overall hygiene and biosecurity of the practice. Clothing garments can act as fomites for the transmission of infectious agents and care must be taken when drawing up a practice clothing policy.
There should be strict rules on the types of clothes allowed. For example long trailing sleeves are likely to pick up detritus and contamination.
To complement the clothing policy, there should be a jewellery policy as these too may compromise a biosecurity programme. For example rings may affect the action of thorough hand hygiene.
The practice can largely be divided into 2 broad areas. In patient and Out patient. The clothing policy should consider the use of over garments or clothes changes between these two areas to reduce the tracking of infection into sterile areas.
It is important to add the 3rd area of outside the practice to ensure that potential pathogens are not carried home by members of staff or vice versa.
A clothing policy will form an important component of the overall hygiene protocol of the practice
