The blogosphere's opinion seems to be that this is an example of lily-livered PC on the part of a hospital in the UK. Perhaps, but there's something to what the friend who sent the link says. She opined that while she could do without the headgear, she can't believe we've been walking down hospital halls with our bums askew and on view for all these years --just on a doctor's say-so:
We Westerners have been too acquiescent to authority! We should have demanded more modest and comfortable gowns long ago!