IT’S quite frightening. Our hospitals are in deep trouble.
There is a shortage of staff, doctors are overworked, there are not enough beds, medicine stock is running low and there are just too many patients.
Oh, and there is that other major problem – it seems patients are not coming to hospital dressed decently enough for some.
A woman had gone to the emergency department after suffering cramps while playing badminton and was told by a medical officer to go home and change before she could be treated. She had been wearing shorts while playing badminton.
Imagine that. We have doctors and pharmacists crying that there are not enough of them to go round, and yet, there are medical officers who are more concerned by the patients’ clothes than the job at hand!
It really bugs me. Why are health workers “turned on” by female patients in skirts or shorts?
I am sure they have seen enough of the human form in anatomy class. Is a bit of flesh suddenly tantalising to them?
I have been a patient, having spent months in hospital ICUs and wards.
Nurses there have seen me without my clothes on when they gave me sponge baths and even cleaned up after me. I am eternally grateful to those girls and ladies for what they did.
Doctors, even female ones, casually told me to drop my pants to give me jabs. The only person who suffered embarrassment was me.
Have you seen those scrubs they make you wear before an MRI or X-Ray? I am a six-footer and those things are like micro-mini dresses. I keep pulling at the hems to hide my modesty, but it never works.
And guess what, most healthcare workers couldn’t give a hoot about the flesh I show off, not that there was much to show off anyway.
So, why are some offended that some legs are showing on a woman who suffered an injury while playing badminton? Worse, they even have to play at being moral police.
Can’t we just look away if the sight of a leg is somehow offensive?
The thing is, this is not a new problem. These prudes have always been there, but they seem to be growing in numbers now.
Last year, a woman was denied entry into the Selayang Hospital emergency ward to visit her father because her skirt did not cover her knee.
The All Women’s Action Society (Awam) was not pleased. It said the dress policing was unnecessary and a violation of the basic right to healthcare facilities. Even the Health director-general had clarified as far back as 2015 that the “dress codes” were just guidelines and not rules to be enforced.
Even with a government that is supposed to be more liberal – or at least less conservative than some PAS types – the problem just won’t seem to go away.
It’s not just hospitals. Government departments, even police stations, are also getting into the act. These are places the common folk go to. It is one thing if they are scantily dressed, but even translucent skirts?
One woman claimed she walked up the stairs because the security guard could not stand the sight of her translucent almost ankle-length dress. The person she was meeting in the government department had no problem with her attire.
Sure, there are places where dress codes are a must. Mosques, churches, temples and other houses of worship need to be respected. I still get annoyed seeing women dressed for the beach climbing up the Batu Caves steps to the temple there.
Then, there is Parliament. It’s not called the august House for nothing.
But staff at government departments, police stations and hospitals should really loosen up and chill. Indecency, of course, is a no-no, but a skirt that ends just above the knee should not send them into a frenzy.
Most sports outfits and even some ethnic traditional clothes from Sabah and Sarawak will fail the dress code test.
It’s quite ironic that we have come to this.
There was a time when policemen wore shorts – some tight, some starched and loose – as they watched from street corners. Policewomen, being fit and healthy, were a pretty sight to behold in their shapely skirts.
But they were not to be fooled with. They were respected as law enforcers. Now, so-called law enforcers are going after those who wear those very same shorts and skirts.
Clothes, we must remember, do not make the person. It cannot be a crime, or an offence, to wear shorts or skirts.
Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi once wore a loincloth to Buckingham Palace for an official dinner; he had a point to prove. That fakir, as they called him then, remains a hero while the royally-dressed King who hosted him is largely forgotten.
Malaysia is a country with many problems to overcome – we have poverty, corruption, a rising cost of living – and we have a serious brain drain.
Now is the time to worry about substance, not form.
Even in Parliament, we have well-dressed gentlemen – in coats and ties – spewing sexist and racist nonsense. I would much prefer a woman in a knee-length skirt who can talk sense.
A woman in a skirt with a slit who can bring value to a discussion within any government department would be a big asset compared to any fully-covered MP who links food intake to autism and cancer.
Then, there was this bunch of guys in Terengganu covered from head to toe, complete with pointy Klansman-style hats, who marched with fake weapons in hand.
The outfits those guys wore (save for the weapons) met the criteria to enter our government departments.
But no, I think I would prefer the short skirts to those fellas, anytime.
