Patient Safety Vs. Muslim Modesty in the UK

Another culture clash is taking place in the UK where health minded authorities are at odds with modesty inclined female Muslim students that are refusing to scrub their arms properly before medical procedures.

Dr Charles Tannock, a Conservative MEP and former hospital consultant, said: “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 everyone else has to follow.”

But the Islamic Medical Association insisted that covering all the body in public, except the face and hands, was a basic tenet of Islam.

It said: “No practising Muslim woman – doctor, medical student, nurse or patient – should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow.”

No patient should likewise be forced to seek treatment from filthy armed medical care workers, not just because of fear from disease but also because the thought is simply gross. If you don't mind, I'm not going to buy ice cream from dirty armed matrons either.

Perhaps Muslims will be seeking medical care from the new to open "Our Arms May Be Dirty But Our Hearts Are Righteous Hospital" in Liverpool, but they should spare me their indignation on this issue. They may have the right to dirty arms, but I also have a right to keep my open wounds from exposure to their soiled appendages.

h/t Dhimmi Watch