When will the national uniform be ready?

NHS Supply Chain (NHSSC), which sources and delivers health products to NHS organisations, began a consultation with staff in 2021. It drew up a design brief with prototypes and tested them in ten trial sites.

NHSSC category tower director for hotel services Kevin Chidlow says England’s NHS national healthcare uniform ‘will be ready from summer 2024’.

Nurses in Scotland and Wales have had standardised uniforms since 2010, and Northern Ireland followed in 2011. However, NHS trusts will begin introducing them when their existing uniform contracts come to an end so it could take several years for the complete roll-out.

Why were some nurses unhappy with the colour choices when the uniforms were revealed?

Currently, each NHS trust chooses its own colour and style of garment for staff. NHSSC says that the new uniform will mean there is one recognisable colour code for different staff roles in all NHS health services.

Picture credit: John Houlihan

When the colour scheme was revealed last year, it prompted negative comments on social media from some nurses, with concerns that the colour categories were too broad.

For example, the new uniforms include a blue for nurses and a navy for ‘team leaders’, but there is no clarity on whether a team leader means junior or senior charge nurses, clinical nurse specialists, educators or one of the many other leadership roles that exist. There was also no colour differentiation between nursing bands.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, London South Bank University chair of healthcare and workforce modelling Alison Leary said the new uniform was an ‘utter confusing mess’.

‘Mixing job titles, professions and local arrangements of definitions of work. I really hope @CNOEngland [chief nursing officer for England] et al is not endorsing this. Doesn’t recognise Registered Nurse at all.’

NHSSC was inundated with feedback from front-line staff; it said on X ‘appreciate the engagement we’ve received’ and that it would update its website with more information. It also told Nursing Standard that the colour code is deliberately ‘designed to be generic’ so a range of roles can be included.

Where does my role fit in the colour scheme?

The new uniform will cover all English NHS trusts including acute, community and mental health settings, says Mr Chidlow.

He adds that while NHSSC is working towards consistency nationwide, it is speaking to local NHS trusts to find the best way forward for staff.

‘We have engaged nationally and continue to engage with NHS England and professional bodies as well as NHS trusts,’ he says. ‘The colours have been chosen to reflect the different professions and the roles within those professions, where appropriate.

‘We are actively engaging with our pathfinder trusts and senior stakeholders to understand where it is clinically appropriate for professions to align to the chosen colourways. This will then form the basis of national guidance.’

Will the new uniform be worn by the whole NHS workforce?

NHS trusts will choose when they adopt the new uniform, but the aim is for older versions to be phased out.

For staff who do not wear uniforms nothing will change and they will continue to wear their own clothes. The same goes for those who wear scrubs rather than uniform for infection control reasons. For example, critical care or theatre staff who change into a new pair of hospital-laundered scrubs on every shift will continue to do that.

Mr Chidlow says: ‘We are aware that there are many clinical settings where it is not deemed appropriate to wear a uniform because of the effect this may have on a patient. It is not the intention of this proposal to change that. Where there is a clinical need to wear scrubs, such as in a theatre, then we anticipate that this will remain the same.’

Will the new uniform keep me cooler than my current uniform? And are they more practical?

The fabric used to design the new uniform is lighter than that used for the current tunic uniforms, says NHSSC, so is likely to keep wearers cooler. This should benefit staff who are experiencing hot flushes as a symptom of the perimenopause.

Some nurses were keen to point out on X that many NHS garments are not practical for the type of work nurses do. Explaining what was wanted from the new uniform, specialist emergency care nurse Chris Elton said he would be happy ‘as long as the trousers have cargo pockets and the tops don’t spill the contents of the pockets when you bend over’.

In response to this, NHSSC’s Mr Chidlow says: ‘The smart scrub and dress will have two waist pockets and one breast pocket, the trousers and shorts will have two cargo-style pockets.

‘In comparison to a traditional tunic, our chosen fabric is considerably lighter, offering a cooler wearing experience. Additionally, this fabric incorporates at least 10% mechanical stretch, which further enhances comfort.’

A first look at the new national nurses’ uniform rcni.com/first-look-uniforms