FOOTNOTE TWO

As she was currently assigned to general Sick Bay duties rather than theatre or emergency room duty, Wheezy was entitled to wear either a short or long-sleeve crew neck tunic of blue satin (only for general practitioners and/or those of Lieutenant rank or above) or she could choose to wear the enlisted crew and junior officer option of long or short-sleeve white cotton lycra; though while the crew’s version came in either crew or plain V neck, the officer version was a V neck with a collar.

In the style of the regular Fantasy uniform, all aforementioned designs bore the familiar sash over the left shoulder and breast – though a sash of red rather than white for all those belonging to the medical department – that was sewn on to the various tops; the positioning of rank pips, commbadge and, when required, colours remained the same.

The sole exception to the sash was on the officer’s white collared top, and these had old-fashioned black and gold braided stripes on a pair of red shoulder-mounted epaulettes – though they still wore their commbadge in the normal left breast position.

Had she been in ER or surgery, then she would have worn an olive cotton jumpsuit for theatre surgeries, a blue jumpsuit for non-theatre surgeries, or an olive satin tunic for consultancies.

Long blue coats were the preserve of any non-Starfleet doctor-specialists on board - worn over civilian clothing, though Starfleet doctors in specialist roles could wear a shorter version of the blue short coat over their regular uniform.

Lab support, general porter and mortuary duties normally required white jumpsuits and/or short white coats over civilian clothing or Starfleet uniforms.

Only the CMO was permitted to wear a long white coat over any chosen uniform configuration (depending on their activity), or their Starfleet Uniform.

O’Hara had to read the uniform protocols several times over to understand them – but decided it would in fact be a very quick and straightforward system for identification at busy times and in triage situations. There was a proviso in the notes, however, which stated that in times of prolonged high alert all Starfleet personnel would be required to wear their Starfleet uniform only.

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