Trusts failing to eliminate mixed-sex wards

The Government is still failing NHS patients when it comes to mixed-sex accommodation, the Conservatives said today.

Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed many trusts are unable to fully meet Government guidelines on eliminating mixed-sex accommodation on hospital wards.

The Tories received responses from 132 acute hospital trusts (77 per cent) and 55 mental health trusts (79 per cent) across England.

The information showed that trusts were using partitions and curtains to separate men and women, despite the fact this is not allowed.

One in seven (15 per cent) hospital trusts and 2 per cent of mental health trusts also still used nightingale wards, which are large dormitory style wards, to look after men and women.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said in April last year that mixed-sex accommodation in the NHS would be abolished within a year, adding the goal was within "touching distance".

According to the Government's guidance, patients should not have to walk past opposite sex bays to get to the toilet or washroom, and there should be separate facilities.

It says bays should have three solid walls, with the fourth wall open or partially enclosed, and using curtains to separate men and women is not allowed.

Today's data showed that 16 per cent of hospital trusts and 8 per cent of mental health trusts still use curtains to segregate patients in some areas.

More than one in four (28 per cent) hospital trusts and 29 per cent of mental health trusts are also failing to provide segregated washing facilities for patients in some areas.

One in three (33 per cent) hospital trusts and 24 per cent of mental health trusts did not provide segregated toilet facilities while 23 per cent of hospital trusts and 11 per cent of mental health trusts used partitions instead of solid walls to segregate patients in some areas.

The data also showed that between October 2007 and September 2008 there were 6,485 recorded breaches of procedures for segregating patients by sex in hospital trusts and 30 in mental health trusts.

However, not all trusts recorded this information, suggesting the figure could be higher.

In the same period, there were 997 complaints about privacy and dignity in hospital trusts and 135 complaints in mental health trusts.

The Conservatives asked trusts to exclude information on children's and intensive care wards.

Shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, 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 to 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.

"That is why we in the Conservative party have set out clear plans to double the number of single rooms in NHS hospitals which will allow us to finally end the scandal of mixed sex wards and allow NHS staff to treat patients with the respect and dignity they deserve."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We are reducing mixed-sex accommodation to an absolute minimum and have made significant progress.

"Some hospitals and local NHS areas still have more to do and they are now required to publish and implement ambitious plans to improve.

"The latest survey by the independent health watchdog, the Healthcare Commission, showed only 2 per cent of patients saying they did not have enough privacy.

"There will be some instances - emergencies for example - where urgent medical care must take precedence over complete gender segregation.

"The NHS will not turn patients away because the "right sex" bed is not immediately available.

"If any member of the public feels their privacy has been compromised or that their local hospital is not taking gender segregation seriously, it is important they complain to the senior management."