Now it is offensive to have male and female uniforms in the NHS

Men and women have different body shapes. Unisex clothes are usually men’s supplied in smaller sizes.

What do you expect "the sexes" to wear at work ? Your point is definitely a bit of a stretch. Unisex uniforms have been around years or are you expecting frilly hats and stiff aprons for the lady nurses still ?

We have had this in place in Scotland for a while and the colour system is so useful to other staff members who are often busy and can quickly identify who they need to speak to by what colour their uniform is. When I first started in the NHS this really helped me before I got to know everyone personally. However, the tunics do not consider the female shape and I would have to cut the sides in order for them to fit over my hips. I’m a slim size 8 but have wider hips to waist which is absolutely not considered in the shaping of the uniform. They are definitely made for men which is a real shame.

It would be easier to have something like stripes on the arm to denote seniority rather than a different colour for everyone. In reality, people in hospital for the day won't have familiarised themselves with all the colours before they arrive, but "more stripes = more important" is easy to grasp.

But surely trouser length is an issue. If they are tapered then they will be like palazzo pants (which I find can flap a kit and catch your ankles when walking fast) if you are rather short. Plus waist height.

And there's sewing rooms to adapt the uniform trousers, and two lengths of too I Wales. As well as elasticated waists or drawstring for mental health staff (so you dont lose your trousers in a restraint)

There was an interview in tv recently about sexism in the police. The woman interviewed was saying that the armed police only had mens body armour (it was finally changed) which was painful/not fit for purpose for the women armed officers.

Exactly this. Unisex clothes are just men's clothes.

They are fine unisex, and there's no issue.
There's a maternity version for the women.

Wales colours seem much more sensible, I don't know why England didn't use the same. Dr's have coloured scrubs in wales.

Makes it much easier for the patients and staff to identify who is who. Though agency staff wear different uniforms.

I think the English uniform has too many colours which are similar shades.

The whole point about having men and women’s uniforms is so that they fit properly! Comfort and safety.

women generally look awful in men’s uniforms - all wrong shape, length, baggy at the waist, too right around the boobs… that’s the flipping point!

NHS - who is advising them?

Colours are crucial to identifying staff, even for other staff.
If I walk on a ward I want to know who the Sister is without walking round looking at everyone's name badge.
It really is used as a system pretty much everywhere, they're just unifying it across Trusts.
Agree male and female scrubs should be available though.

Those colours have been pretty standard in my trust for the last 10 years. I have worked on the NHS for 23 years, I have never known a time when physios didn't wear white with navy trim and OTs white with green.

I've got nothing against the universal colours (although peering at someone to decide the exact shade of blue could get interesting)

but unisex does already cause issues - trousers too long because women are shorter than men on average (and unisex means 'man shaped' not 'half-way between' - we all know it), super baggy in some places so that they fit in others - having to safety pin the neckline or flashing everyone through armholes if you've got bigger boobs.

Bit of a bugger identifying staff if you are colourblind.

The NHS has taken on all the trans evil. It should concentrate on patients, not playing politics. The management need to be removed

Speaking as someone who was recently in hospital for a long period as an inpatient, it was absolutely crucial to get to know the colours the staff were wearing and what they mean.

The NHS is very hierarchical and specialised - so if you wanted to get your medications sorted, it was crucial you were speaking to the nurse, because eg a health care assistant wasn't going to know and wouldn't necessarily pass your query on. If you needed someone to eg change your bedding, you would probably mortally offend someone higher up the food chain than a healthcare assistant if you asked them to do this (and they wouldn't do it).

The doctors not wearing any kind of uniform or identifying badge is also a real issue, because often the junior doctors are very young and frankly look no different to a health care assistant (some of them wear scrubs too). But of course it's really important to know if the person giving you medical advice is actually a doctor. IMO, doctors should wear an easily recognisable uniform too. But if course they won't, because they currently get to wear whatever they like (hygiene rules don't seem to apply to doctors for some reason?), and can't see them wanting to change that.

Why does gender neutral = always have to mean 'made for men'?

I'd like to see gender neutral uniform brought in as made for women's bodies with men expected to wear trousers that end several inches above the ankle or with waists they can't get over their beer bellies.

That would soon see an end to the ridiculous idea of forcing everyone to wear clothes designed for one sex only! As if men were the ones complaining, something would be done about it!

Of course, when it's just women who are inconvenienced by this policy, nothing is done and no-one gives a shit.

I realise the picture might not be accurate but if it is then they haven't considered colour blind people at all.

we wear scrubs. they're unisex. which like most other unisex things means they're made for men and most women have to put up with them bring too long and either too tight on the hips or massively flappy around the rest of your lower half.

They can't be that bad, plenty of nurses choose to wear them.

It’s not an infection control thing but dresses are lousy for manual handling

Why would that not happen in a dress?

Looks smart

I thought dresses were bad for infection control. Aren’t staff supposed to have covered legs and closed shoes?