The debate over whether or not a physician can wear a watch in the UK...is one needed?  If they ban the watches, then a bed side clock will need to be present at each bed...go figure...BD  image

Doctors have difficulty carrying out simple clinical tasks without a wristwatch, according to two clinicians.

Trusts were asked to implement a ‘bare below the elbows’ infection control policy at the beginning of January 2008 by Health Secretary Alan Johnson. Yet medics have approached the British Medical Journal with concerns that the lack of wristwatches could affect patient care.
James Henderson, a specialist registrar in plastic surgery at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust, and Sarah McCracken, a specialist registrar in geriatric medicine at Ipswich Hospital, revealed the results of a survey of 20 people to carry out simple medical observations without the use of a “second hand” to show their dependence on wristwatches. The medics claim that, “only one participant gave values for each reading that would not have been potentially dangerous in a clinical setting”.
In his letter to the British Medical Journal, Dr James Henderson said:
“Little account has been made of the clinical benefits of a wristwatch. The majority of beds and examination couches in hospitals do not currently allow sight of a clock.

DH watch-ban ‘potentially dangerous’

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