Govt to announce end of mixed-sex wards
Andrew Lansley wants an end to mixed-sex wards
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Monday, 16, Aug 2010 08:20
by Anna Seward
The government is expected to announce an end to mixed-sex hospital wards.
Daily Telegraph reports suggest that health secretary Andrew Lansley wants the "indignity" of men and women sharing wards to be addressed by the end of the year.
The move will affect all wards except for accident and emergency and intensive care units.
Mr Lansley is reported to have asked chief nursing officer Dame Christine Beasley to visit all hospital trusts with mixed-sex wards to see what progress they are making.
He said: "I have made clear repeatedly my deep frustration at the fact that mixed-sex accommodation has not been eliminated from the NHS.
"Eliminating mixed-sex accommodation is in patients' best interests, and I made clear the priority I attach to it in the revised operating framework published in June. I will have more to say on this shortly."
Catherine Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Patients' Association, said she would welcome an end to mixed-sex wards, but told the Daily Telegraph that it will be difficult to achieve in light of the government's austerity drive.
"Given that each incoming secretary of state has made exactly this same pledge since 1997, we will wait to see if it is more than just rhetoric," she remarked.
The previous Labour government was determined to abolish mixed-sex wards but eventually gave up on its goal, with former health minister Lord Darzi describing the provision of mixed-sex wards across the NHS as an "aspiration that cannot be met".