£100m building work to
abolish mixed-sex wards
Mixed sex accommodation in NHS hospitals will be tackled by 700 building projects at a cost of £100m, the Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced today.
Some improvement works across the 200 organisations involved began last month. Approximately £40m of the funding has been allocated for new and refurbished same-sex sanitary facilities such as bathrooms. The remainder will be spent on erecting separating walls, provision of same-sex lounges.
In January Alan Johnson announced that hospitals would "all but eliminate" mixed-sexed accommodation within six months.
However, the government has consistently missed its deadlines for tackling the issue. In 2001 the government pledged to abolish mixed-sex accommodation in 95% of NHS trusts by December 2002. Health Secretary Alan Johnson told the Royal College of Nursing in April 2008 that it would be achieved within a year.
The 2008 Healthcare Commission annual report indicated that around one in 10 patients with a planned admission had shared accommodation and 30% used a bathroom or shower area that was also used by patients of the opposite sex.
Alan Johnson said today: "We have made great progress, however our message is clear- over the coming months we only expect to see mixed sex accommodation where it is clinically justified and from next year those trusts who fail in this duty will be financially penalised.
"It is simply unacceptable for top quality treatment by our finest surgeons, doctors and nurses to be undermined by a sub-standard mixed sex environment that patients find unsettling, uncomfortable and undignified.
"We are committed to providing patients with high quality care that is safe, effective and which puts a patient's privacy and dignity at its core. Everyone working within the NHS has a clear duty to ensure that this is not just implemented, but maintained."
05 May 2009
Health Insurance Magazine
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