Does a different attire make one less of a doctor ? Seems like a case in point at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH).

In what could be a peculiar issue at the Maternity Ward, patients and their family members believe that they do not get attended to by “senior doctors”. And, the reason for them arriving at this conclusion is because doctors are attired in churidars. Their understanding is that senior doctors always wear saris.

According to sources, the issue was raised in the monthly review meeting at the District Collectorate in the presence of Collector Archana Patnaik,

“Senior doctors always come in saris, but not juniors (or trainees),” claimed one of the family members of a patient during the meeting.

Completely taken aback by the answer, it took a while for the officials to explain to them that the dress was chosen by the doctors for comfort and was not a sign of seniority.

“This issue is frequently raised, and becomes inevitable whenever a doctor in churidar attends to a patient,’ a doctor said.

He added that patients and their attendants should do away with the perception that only junior doctors wear churidars. Sometimes patients did not treat even senior doctors courteously when they came attired in churidar assuming they were juniors.