Mixed-sex hospital wards remain

Reporter: Lobby Correspondent
Date online: 12 January 2009

PATIENTS are still suffering the indignity of mixed-sex hospital wards — nearly eight years after the Government pledged to scrap them, Tories say.

According to information obtained under the Freedom of Information act, patients treated by Pennine Acute Hospital Trust, which runs four hospital including the Royal Oldham, are experiencing beds separated only by curtains.

And other wards have semi-open bays which, the Tories alleged, might have to be passed to reach bathrooms.

However, unlike many other hospitals across the country, there are no mixed-sex toilets or washing facilities.

The information also revealed the trust received one complaint regarding privacy and dignity in the past year. Nationally, 997 complaints were received.

A trust spokesman said: “We follow the Department of Health’s guidelines on mixed-sex wards, this means that only areas like A&E and the medical admissions unit will have both men and women on the same ward.

“Other wards will have separate bays and these include private toilet facilities to maintain a patient’s privacy.”

Pennine Care NHS Trust — which provides mental health and specialist substance misuse services across Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Stockport, Tameside and Glossop — has no mixed-sex wards or facilities, but received two complaints about privacy or dignity, according to the information.

The Tories said the responses from the hospitals made a mockery of Health Secretary Alan Johnson’s claim last year that the Government was within touching distance of meeting its pledge.

Andrew Lansley, the party’s health spokesman, said: “Patients have enough to worry about when they go into hospital without having to suffer the indignity of being placed in accommodation that affords them too little privacy at such a sensitive time.

“Despite hearing Labour ministers make promise after promise to end the scandal of mixed-sex wards, we have not seen the necessary action and they continue to blight our hospitals. It has been a long list of promises made and broken.”

A Department of Health spokesman said the pledge was to reduce mixed-sex accommodation to an absolute minimum — which allows shared wards to remain, provided the bays offered the proper privacy.

He added: “Some hospitals and NHS areas still have more to do and they are now required to publish and implement ambitious plans to improve.”

Last year, the Healthcare Commission reported that almost 3.2 million patients were admitted to mixed-sex wards and described progress towards the Government’s pledge as patchy.

Ministers pointed to research showing patients were far more concerned about hospital cleanliness than single-sex accommodation.