Who would you rather be treated by? An exceptionally gifted diagnostician who is completely committed to your wellbeing, or a burnt out cynic who is not interested in you at all? And would it change things if one was wearing ripped jeans, while the other was in a suit? It's a silly question of course. You wouldn't last very long in the health service in ripped jeans.

So do clothes matter? Well yes they do. Many patients say that they do not like the relaxing of hospital uniforms, as they cannot easily tell who is who on a ward. More than this, though, some people also have what I call the "serial killer in a suit syndrome." A friend of mine is convinced that her father would describe Slobodan Milosevic as a "nice young man" just as long as he was wearing a Marks & Spencer shirt and tie. To such people, the sight of a sloppily dressed doctor may cause distress sufficient to induce physical symptoms.

I have no problem with this, and am happy to conform to the expected standards. It's like the rule of tattoos. No one with a tattoo objects to those who don't have them, but some people who don't have them find their presence offensive. If you work with the public you must bear this in mind. Indeed it was for this very reason that I decided to get "I love Mum" and "Chelsea Forever" removed from my forehead before filling in a university application form.

At the start of our clinical rotations, we were called in for a pep talk with a few do's and don'ts for the wards. I remember us all sitting there in our preclinical uniform of T shirts and jeans, and being told to apply the "mum test" to our appearance. That is, to always consider whether our mothers would approve of our choice of outfit.

But then I started to think about some of the mums I know. There's one who wears leathers and dreams of owning a Harley Davidson, another who paints flowers and butterflies on all her dresses, and, of course, my own "mother in law," who doesn't trust conformists but does have a large Volkswagen Beetle tattooed on her left buttock.