Muslims' hospital bug snub

THOUSANDS of hospital patients are in danger of catching deadly superbugs because Muslim medical students refuse to follow new hygiene rules.

The Department of Health has ordered staff across the country to be “bare past the elbow” in a bid to halt the spread of infections like MRSA and C.diff.
They say the rule is essential to ensure workers are properly able to wash their hands and wrists.

But female Muslim students training in hospitals in England have refused to implement the directive because Islam forbids women exposing more than their hands and face in public.
A report from Leicester University said female students “had difficulty” complying with the “roll-up” order.

At Sheffield University one medic refused to scrub her forearms as it would have exposed them.
Some students have threatened to leave their course at Birmingham University — while hospital Trust bosses fear the issue could leave them open to legal action.

A spokesman for the Islamic Medical Association said: “No practising Muslim woman doctor, medical student, nurse or patient should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow.

“Exposed arms can pick up germs and there is a lot of evidence to suggest skin is safer to the patient if covered. One idea might be to produce long, sterile, disposable gloves which go up to the elbows.”

But Dr Mark Enright, professor of microbiology at Imperial College London, said: “To wash your hands properly and reduce the risk of MRSA and C.diff, you must 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 Tory MEP and former hospital consultant, said: “These students are being trained using taxpayers’ money. They have a duty of care not to put patients’ health at risk.”