New working clothes prove functional and fashionable

PMS2915C, PMS2715C, PMS270C, PMS2945C – pharmaceutical product references? No. Labelling for DNA sequences? Nice try, but guess again.

Far from being some mysterious medical nomenclature, these codes are in fact the pantone numbers of the four colours – light blue, indigo blue, purple and royal blue - used in the new range of working clothes for Hospital Authority frontline healthcare professionals. Planned to be phased in over the next few years, the new clothing is the first set of standardised workwear that HA has designed for its various healthcare professionals since the Authority’s inception in 1990.

Standing out from the crowd

To help patients, visitors and even HA colleagues more easily identify a person’s job type by sight alone, Irene Lee, Cluster General Manager (Nursing) for the Hong Kong West Cluster and General Manager (Nursing) at Queen Mary Hospital and Tsan Yuk Hospital, has joined hands with colleagues from Head Office’s Business Support Services Department and representatives of doctors, nurses, allied health workers and pharmacy to form a working group with the daunting task of achieving the standardisation of workwear for these four types of medical professionals across HA.

A series of discussions and consultations that began in October 2013 eventually led to an endorsement by the Corporate Communication Committee on the design and colours of the work attire in last October for each of the four represented groups of staff.

“All four groups happened to favour blue,” says Irene. “Armed with this information, we chose to produce the new working clothes in light blue, indigo blue, purple and royal blue for doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and pharmacy staff respectively.” Irene adds, “In addition to ensuring that visitors and patients can more easily identify frontline colleagues, standardising the colour and design of working clothes will enhance HA’s corporate image and enable mass procurement that will reduce long-term clothing production costs.”

When will the new clothes be issued?

Following this sneak peek in this issue of HASLink, the new working clothes will be subject to further scrutiny by designated members of staff to ensure the final production designs meet the specific needs of the groups of individuals who will wear them. Antony Lui, Senior Manager (Business Support Services), says his team will provide expert advice and technical support. As finalising the specifications and consolidating comments and order requests from individual clusters and hospitals take time, it is expected that the new working clothes will start to be seen in HA hospitals and institutions in the year of 2016/17 by phases.

Working clothes, NOT uniform

Irene stresses that the exercise was only designed to standardise working clothes for doctors, nurses, allied health staff and pharmacy staff, and that uniforms remain unchanged. Healthcare workers and supporting staff can continue to wear their uniforms as needed if they are not going into designated high-risk areas.

When and where to wear working clothes?

• Isolation areas
• Intensive care units
• Accident and Emergency Department
• Individual hospitals can use their discretion to decide on if working clothes are needed to carry out work responsibilities.

Picking the right designs

Irene says the working group assessed a number of key criteria before coming to their final decisions on the new designs. The first requirement was that the fabric had to be comfortable to wear but not so thin or transparent as to be ‘see-through’. Working clothes for nurses and allied health staff had to include a collar that will preserve the wearer’s modesty when they bend over to take care of patients. A near straight-cut design will allow the wearer greater freedom of movement.

On top of these more functional considerations, the working party were also keen to ensure the working clothes will look smart and contemporary. With this in mind, all the new designs have adopted a ‘3 to 7’ or ‘4 to 6’ front opening that gives a clean and professional finish.

A colour palette of confusion

At present, visitors to HA may find it tricky to tell different types of healthcare workers apart. In addition to the huge variety of colours and designs, staff with different jobs and of different grades will often wear the same type of working clothes. For example, both doctors and dispensers will sometimes wear white gowns, while an individual in green gown could be an anaesthesiologist or a member of supporting staff.

“There are 42 hospitals and institutions, 47 Specialist Out-patient Clinics and 73 General Out-patient Clinics managed by HA. Across these various institutions, it is possible to find examples of around 60 different sets of working clothes,” says Irene Lee, Cluster General Manager (Nursing) for Hong Kong West Cluster and General Manager (Nursing) at Queen Mary Hospital and Tsan Yuk Hospital. “There is currently no standardisation in colour or style, making it virtually impossible to identify a person’s job or rank from their clothing alone.”

“The issue has historical roots, with different hospitals and healthcare institutions developing working clothes in isolation from each other and based on their specific preferences and needs,” Irene continues. “In the early days of Queen Mary Hospital (QMH), only nurses in the newborns ward, Neonatal Intensive Care and Paediatric Intensive Care wards wore working clothes. Over time, Adult Intensive Care ward also came up with its own working clothes design. After the outbreak of SARS in 2003, doctors at QMH were issued with working clothes and other units also began to independently develop workwear for staff.”

The potential confusion caused by the lack of standardisation within and across different hospitals has been compounded by a liberal approach to one department or job function picking up on a clothing design previously used elsewhere. At QMH, for example, the workwear formerly worn by nurses on the newborns ward is now used by workers in the hospital’s milk kitchen.

New working clothes

Current working clothes