DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release issued by COI News Distribution Service on 5 May 2009
Building work to
continue the progress made and finally eliminate mixed-sex
accommodation in hospitals across England has started with over
700 projects planned across 200 organisations, Health Secretary
Alan Johnson announced today.
The work is part of the government's pledge to ensure that
men and women will not have to share sleeping areas, bathrooms or
toilets when admitted to hospital and that their privacy and
dignity is upheld whenever possible.
Some improvement works started in April after Alan Johnson
allocated a £100 million Privacy and Dignity Fund to all Strategic
Health Authorities (SHAs) in England. This followed approval of
their plans on how best to eliminate mixed sex accommodation in
hospitals in their areas.
Approximately £40 million of the funding has been allocated for
new and refurbished same-sex sanitary facilities such as
bathrooms, with the remainder spent on other work including:
*
Erecting separating walls
* Provision of same-sex
lounges,
* Improved partitions
* Approved pan-trust bed
management systems.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said:
"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."
r Peter Carter, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the
Royal
College of Nursing (RCN), said:
"Nurses strive to provide high quality, dignified care at
all times, but
mixed sex wards have often been a major
obstacle. Eliminating mixed sex accommodation would be a hugely
significant step towards dignified patient care for all."
To ensure that the improvements are delivered to a high standard
and on time; a national improvement team has been set up to
support hospitals and monitor all improvement works.
Notes to Editors:
1. In January 2009 Health Secretary, Alan Johnson announced a
six-month intensive drive to 'all but eliminate' mixed
sex accommodation and a packet of measures including:
- Financial penalties for those hospitals where patients are
treated in mixed sex accommodation - unless it can be clinically
justified
- A 100 million Privacy and Dignity Fund to help
trusts make swift adjustments to patient experience
-
Improvement teams to be set up to go into hospitals that need
support during the process
- A greater focus on measuring and
improving patient experience of mixed sex accommodation
* We
recognise that there are times when the need to treat and admit
can override the need for complete segregation. This might apply,
for instance, with:
- A patient needing very high-tech care,
with one-to-one nursing (e.g. ICU, HDU);
- A patient needing
very specialised care, where one nurse might be caring for a small
number of patients; and
- A patient needing very urgent care
(e.g. rapid admission following heart attack).
Where mixing
does occur it must be justifiable for all the patients affected.
There are no blanket exemptions for particular specialties, and no
exemptions at all from the need to provide high standards of
privacy and dignity at all times.
Allocation of Funding to SHAs:
South Central SHA
Allocation: £6.8m
South Central is running approximately 44 projects across 16
organisations mostly in Acute Trusts including Foundation Trusts
(FTs) but also some Mental Health (MH) and Community trusts.
Almost half of the projects relate to the provision or
refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs, other projects include the
purchase of screens, new / replacement signs, erecting separating
walls between main corridors and bedded areas, provision of
'women' only lounges and improved information to staff,
the public and patients.
Yorkshire & Humber SHA
Allocation: £10.5m
Yorkshire & Humber are running approximately 42 projects
across 24 organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but
also some PCTs and a MH Trust. Just over a third of the projects
relate to the provision or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs;
other projects include improved information for staff, the public
and patients; refurbishment of nightingale wards providing
increased single rooms; improved male & female segregation in
A&E observation areas; improved partitions; reconfiguration of
renal in-patient accommodation; creation of a single gender
adolescent facility and improved pan-trust bed management systems.
South East Coast SHA
Allocation: £7.8m
South East Coast is running approximately 62 projects across 23
organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but also some
PCTs and MH Trusts. Just over a quarter of the projects relate
to the provision or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs; other
projects include replacement of old curtains, work to improve
visual and physical segregation of male and female patients;
purchase and implementation of a management information module for
the hospital PAS system; conversion of office to create new
clinical room for intimate clinical procedures; addition of
sliding doors to bays; convert mixed sex nightingale wards to same
sex and additional clinical coordinators for operational team to
optimise patient allocation.
North West SHA
Allocation: £14.8m
North West is running approximately 112 projects across 34
organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but also some
PCTs and MH Trusts. Just over a quarter of the projects relate
to the provision or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs, other
projects include doors across bays, re-modelling bed capacity, new
screens, provision of curtains and tracks, education and training
for staff, new signage, segregation of patients in emergency
surgical unit, purpose built unit with single rooms and a day area
for adolescents.
North East SHA
Allocation: £5.7m
North East is running approximately 43 projects across 10
organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but also a MH
Trust. Just over a third of the projects relate to the provision
or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs, other projects include
improving publicity for patients and the public, expanding medical
assessment unit to increase facility for single sex accommodation,
new partitions and screens, new signage, developing a user/carer
survey and a bedside management alert system to indicate breaches.
West Midlands SHA
Allocation: £10.8m
West Midlands are running approximately 91 projects across 29
organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but also PCTs
and MH Trusts. Just over a third of the projects relate to the
provision or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs; other projects
include new day rooms and interview rooms; fitting robust
partitions to bays; curtains in theatre recovery; rebuild and
redesign of wards; new signage; convert bedded spaces to
bathrooms; male & female waiting areas and treatment
facilities to day procedures unit; staff training and separate
male & female wings for long stay learning disabilities patients.
East Midlands SHA
Allocation: £8.4m
East Midlands are running approximately 36 projects across 13
organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but also MH
Trusts. Just over a quarter of the projects relate to the
provision or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs; other projects
include improved signage; improved communications with staff and
patients; installing window film to reduce overlooking into
patient sleeping areas; alter location of corridor doors to
provide women only areas; additional wall to bed bays to improve
segregation; introduce pilot for ward hostesses to 'meet and
greet' patients; improve single sex accommodation on the
surgical admissions ward and the purchase of new curtains.
London SHA
Allocation: £15.3m
London is running approximately 53 projects across 26
organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but also MH
Trusts. Just over a quarter of the projects relate to the
provision or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs. Other projects
include privacy curtains, partitions to bays, installing sliding
doors to 4-bedded bays, new patient monitoring equipment to
admissions ward, new signage and change of use of storeroom to 2
bedded ensuite bays.
South West SHA
Allocation: £9.6m
South West is running approximately 172 projects across 18
organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but also MH
Trusts. Just over half of the projects relate to the provision
or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs. Other projects include new
curtains, converting storeroom into shower room, upgrading door
locks and privacy screens, glazed screens for HDU beds, redesign
and rebuild interior structures to eliminate mixed sex
accommodation, improved signage, electronic bed boards for bed
management system, new staff operated vision panels, patient
leaflets and the appointment of fixed term champions / patient
flow coordinators.
East of England SHA
Allocation: £10.3m
East of England is running approximately 51 projects across 23
organisations, mostly in Acute Trusts including FTs, but also MH
Trusts. Well over half of the projects relate to the provision
or refurbishment of bathrooms and WCs. Other projects include
staff, patient and public comms, new screens and partitions, new
signage, new ward in emergency assessment unit, converting wards
into male & female areas, partitioning in day rooms to prevent
overlooking sleeping areas and female only lounges.