The NHS is putting women at risk by placing them in mixed-sex wards, a report has revealed.
Figures show a record 53,874 patients were treated in mixed-sex accommodation last year – more than double the 19,700 recorded in the year before the pandemic.
Non-statutory guidance issued in 2010 banned the accommodation except in wards where patients ‘may derive comfort from the presence of other patients with similar conditions’.
But NHS trusts and private healthcare providers have been criticised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) over failures to protect women.
The body highlighted cases of men undressing in the presence of women and the absence of gendered toilets, in its report on the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
It found the Trust – which operates five mixed-sex community mental health crisis facilities, known as The Havens – was ‘requiring improvement’, with ‘male and female patients being cared for in the same room while they slept on recliner chairs only separated by curtains’.
The report added patients attending the service ‘shared bathroom facilities’.
It said some of the patients had been victims of sexual abuse, highlighting the Trust’s failure to comply with the Department of Health Elimination of Mixed Sex Accommodation policy 2010.
Figures show a record 53,874 patients were treated in mixed-sex accommodation last year – more than double the 19,700 recorded in the year before the pandemic (file image)
The report said: ‘The service did not ensure that there were sufficient safeguards in place to protect the risk of sexual and physical abuse to patients who may have had prior experience of such abuse, and the needs of transgender patients.
‘For example, we observed a male patient who had taken their clothes off because the room lacked ventilation and the room was extremely hot.
‘Patients of the opposite sex were also present.’
Another report, also published in April, criticised a rehabilitation centre run by Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust over ‘concerns about sexual safety’.
It said: ‘Staff did not consistently protect people from abuse. In the last six months there were 69 incidents recorded.
‘We found evidence of six sexual safety incidents, six incidents involving staff, ten incidents of patients absconding and two incidents where patients had reported items lost or stolen.’
The Trust was given a rating of ‘Inadequate’ for its safety.
Critics say mixed-sex wards are dehumanising and frightening for patients, particularly the elderly.
In 2010, following a long-running Daily Mail campaign, the Government promised to end the ‘wards of shame’.
Campaigners from the Women’s Rights Network found thousands of rapes and sexual assaults reported in hospitals, as a result of a 2022 investigation.
The NHS said: ‘The NHS is fully committed to offering same-sex accommodation, and – while there are certain clinical circumstances in which mixed accommodation is necessary – it is clear we need to reverse this unacceptable trend and eliminate unjustified breaches.
‘We recognise this can be challenging for hospitals especially at times of extreme pressures, but it is essential [that] action is taken to ensure the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients is fully protected where same-sex accommodation cannot be provided.’
