Morning:
8°c
London patients still face mixed-sex wards
Anna Davis9 Jan 2009
SOME of London's leading hospitals are still treating patients in mixed-sex wards despite a government crackdown, the Standard can reveal.
The Conservative Party said seven of the capital's hospital trusts treat men and women in open-plan "Nightingale" wards, where patients do not even have a curtain for privacy.
It comes despite Labour's pledge to scrap the wards in its 1997 election manifesto.
Last April Health Secretary Alan Johnson said the Government was within "touching distance" of abolishing the unpopular NHS wards.
But the Tories said that nationally 15 per cent of hospital trusts still use Nightingale wards, while 16 per cent have wards where patients are only separated by curtains. 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."
Research by the Conservatives suggests that Barts and the London, Epsom and St Helier, Whipps Cross, Barnet and Chase Farm, Moorfields Eye Hospital, King's College and Hillingdon hospital NHS Trusts all still use Nightingale wards. The data also shows that some male and female patients are forced to share lavatories and bathrooms.
Mr Lansley added: "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."
Barnet and Chase Farm hospital denied that it uses mixed-sex wards other than in high dependency units, while a spokeswoman for Moorfields said male and female patients were only mixed on day wards.
A spokesman for Barts and the London said it reduced the number of mixed-sex wards by 82 per cent between November 2007 and last November.
The Department of Health said progress was being made in reducing mixed-sex wards. A spokesman said: "There will be some instances where urgent medical care must take precedence over complete gender segregation."
Reader views (2)
I am lucky to be in good health and to have private healthcare so this doesn't affect me personally but I don't think it should be allowed. I would imagine it is very undignified for the ladies, not to mention all the snoring the men would do.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx, 12/01/2009 10:11
Report abuse
I have been in hospital several times over the last 5 years and always in mixed wards. It is not a very nice experience to be ill with female problems and have men in beds each side of you listening to very word the doctor says. This is draconian. We do not consult with GP's in the middle of their waiting rooms.
- Sandy, Southampton, 09/01/2009 12:33
Report abuse
