| We'll
check government promise to end mixed-sex wards, say campaigners
January
30, 2009
by Michael Cross
.....
Campaigners
say they will hold the government to account on its renewed promise
to eliminate mixed-sex hospital wards.
The health secretary Alan Johnson announced on Wednesday that NHS
trusts which from next year fail to provide single-sex accommodation,
including that for psychiatric patients, will be fined.
Labour
has already pledged to end mixed-sex hospital accommodation - in
its 1997 and 2001 election manifestos.
But
the Healthcare Commission found last year that two-thirds of of
psychiatric inpatients in England and Wales are still sharing sleeping
accommodation or bathrooms with the opposite sex.
Campaigners,
such as the Mind mental health charity, say mixed-sex accommodation
is particularly inappropriate for vulnerable psychiatric patients.
New
Department of Health guidance states men and women should not share
hospital sleeping accommodation or toilet facilities, unless there
is a valid clinical reason, such as for patients in accident and
emergency wards.
A
new £100m “privacy and dignity fund” will be used
for NHS hospitals to end mixed-sex accommodation.
Mind’s chief executive Paul Farmer said: “We will be
holding the government and the Care Quality Commission to account
on this issue.
"It
is vital that mental health wards are places where patients can
feel confident and secure enough to progress towards recovery."
Speaking at the NHS Chairs conference in London, Alan Johnson said:
"The
message is clear - the NHS has taken great strides in reducing mixed
sex accommodation over the last 12 years but now it must eliminate
it altogether other than where clinically necessary."
Mr
Johnson said that from next year any hospital failing to provide
single-sex accommodation for a patient will be not be paid for the
care of that patient.
But Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the government's
plans "fall far short" of what is required.
He said: "If Labour were serious about stopping patients being
forced to share wards with the opposite sex they would copy our
pledge to double the number of single rooms in the NHS.
"Our pledge would allow every patient going into hospital for
planned care to have a single room if they want one."
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