Doctors in the U.K. have been asked to keep sleeves above the elbows and not wear ties when they are seeing patients in order to cut infection rates in patients.

But some question if the effort will really help people or just lower the professional image of doctors.

"The evidence for the roles of ties, shirt cuffs, rings or watches in infection is hard to find and mostly in obscure medical journals" said Adam Jones of Royal Berkshire Hospital. "Indeed, similar levels of bacterial contamination have been reported on doctors' stethoscopes and pens."

Research has shown that patients feel more confident in their physicians when they see them in white coats, a news release about Jones' work said.

His study also notes that medicine has progressed greatly from early days, when doctors would often wear the same unwashed frocks from surgery to surgery -- a time when infection rates were high and pus leaking from a wound was considered a sign of healing. Later, doctors were asked to wear clean clothes and scrub up.

Eventually, gloves, masks and surgical antiseptics became the norm.

Jones said that it's not clear if the latest policies will make a difference in rates of infections such as MRSA.

"Medical opinion is divided," he wrote. "Some feel the rules will undermine patient confidence and others feel it could, despite the flimsy evidence available, help to reduce infection rates. I suspect some compromise will need to be found that maintains the patient's perception of a highly professional doctor and yet also reflects the concern that doctors' clothing is transmitting infection."

The work appears in the September issue of BJU International.