Alarm at rise in use of mixed-sex wards in NHS England hospitals
NHS England has recorded more than 120,000 breaches of its mixed-sex hospital accommodation guidance in the past six years, a 257% increase.
Guidance added to the NHS constitution in 2012 states that hospital patients will not share sleeping accommodation with members of the opposite sex “except where appropriate”. Exemptions include critical care wards or patients receiving treatment, such as chemotherapy, where they “may derive comfort from the presence of other patients with similar conditions”.
The guidance also says patients should not share toilet or bathroom facilities with members of the opposite sex and should not “have to walk through an area occupied by patients of the opposite sex to reach toilets or bathrooms”.
However, data from NHS England analysed by the Observer shows thousands of breaches every month, with patient dignity and safety put at risk.
Caitlin (not her real name) worked on an acute mental health ward in a private hospital which switched from 12 women-only beds to 15 mixed beds. “Women on our ward often had a history of sexual or domestic abuse,” she said. “Some had tried to end their life in the wake of this, and a lot of them felt intimidated by the level of aggression shown by some men on the ward.”
Women and men had separate wings but shared a communal area. “A lot of the women were really fearful of the men,” she added.
Caitlin said the use of mixed-sex accommodation had a negative impact on some women’s recovery. “Women would stay in their rooms, not even coming out to watch TV,” she says. “Some acutely unwell women would display sexually disinhibited behaviour in the communal areas, which is a symptom of their diagnosis. They were put in a position where their dignity could not be protected.”
“Women make hundreds of conscious and unconscious decisions to keep ourselves safe from men,” said Karen Ingala-Smith, author of Defending Women’s Spaces. “Women should not have to be on their guard like this when they are in hospital.”
Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2023