Sussex hospitals win same-sex battle

Hospitals are winning the battle to keep the number of male and female patients forced to share the same ward areas to a minimum.

Trusts are fined £250 for each day they break rules that men and women should not sleep in the same bays.

However for the first time in more than a year, all three of the county’s main trusts reported no breaches in August.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust improved on its reported six breaches in July.

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust has had no breaches for the past four months while East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has not had any breaches for the past six months.

Hospitals are expected to provide separate sleeping, bathroom and toilet facilities.

Wards do not have to be single-sex but patients should be kept in bays divided at the very least by a full-height partition.

Comments(9)

Hove Actually says...
6:42pm Fri 5 Oct 12

The Headline
Sussex hospitals win same-sex battle

Is an out and out LIE and the sort of rubbish headline the Argus casually throws in for dramatic effect.

If it had said they are making progress towards eliminating it, fair enough but no, sloppy incorrect lies seem to fit better with second rate journalism

Goldenwight says...
8:00am Sat 6 Oct 12

While I wouldn't go so far as 'Hove, Actually' I think that there is certainly an element of 'shifting the goalposts' here.

I am sure that if we looked closely (or if the Argus employed its journalistic skills and asked questions) we would see that yes, there are in fact mixed sex bays, but that this is permissible for X number of hours. If one reviewed the number of patients who were moved within 5 minutes of X hours, it would be about 96%

random digits says...
9:05am Sat 6 Oct 12

Most people are just grateful to have a bed nowadays aren't they ?

If i got sick enough to need admission to a hospital, the last thing i would do is complain about the mix of male/female on the ward. What next, all male staff? All female staff? You can't be that ill if all you have to moan about is who is in the bed next to you. Put a bloody screen up if you are that delicate around other people .Or better still at home and let grateful people have the bed.

Morpheus says...
9:28am Sat 6 Oct 12

It is the first time I have seen incompetent management in the NHS described as winning a battle.

Maxwell's Ghost says...
10:08am Sat 6 Oct 12

If you have ever been on a mixed sex ward you wouldn't be saying that random digits.
I visited my grandmother in a mixed sex ward and sadly many of the elderly gentlemen also had dementia and would wander up to her bed stark naked and tried to get in the bed as he was confused and during one visit one old boy masturbated incessantly while shouting. My grandmother was very upset as we're many of the female patients.
It really was how I imagined bedlam to be. This was a disgraceful Tory policy introduced by politicians who used private healthcare and ironically had a room to themselves.
It's a bit different when you visit ITU units with mixed beds where the patients are sedated and there is one to one nursing.

random digits says...
10:33am Sat 6 Oct 12

I agree that in mental health environments, and dementia care wards should have same sex wards for obvious vulnerability reasons. But medical wards when mental capacity is not an issue does not need such a pointless segregation. There are more important things to complain about, like overworked nurses, lack of rescources, treatment costs, overpayed managers, etc before spending whats left of the limited cashflow on these issues.

Maxwell's Ghost says...
1:22pm Sat 6 Oct 12

Random digits you must be a man. I have private healthcare as seeing the disgusting environment of men ****, coughing and wandering around with their pyjamas gaping isn't a nice sight.
My old mum says she lives with that every day but at least she's married to the old bugger, but she doesn't want other old men's habits in her face.... So to speak.

Pretty Vacant says...
1:26pm Sat 6 Oct 12

I may be sitting on the fence so hard I have splinters but.... I can see both Random Digits and Maxwells Ghosts point of view. Of course single sex accommodation should always be the ideal. However, given the current bun fight for the few beds available, the choice is between ending up in a mixed sex bay for a few hours ( with curtains around you) or languishing on a trolley amongst the drunks in A&E whilst waiting for the "correct" bed to become available, I know which one I'd choose .....

random digits says...
1:50pm Sat 6 Oct 12

Maxwell's Ghost wrote:
Random digits you must be a man. I have private healthcare as seeing the disgusting environment of men ****, coughing and wandering around with their pyjamas gaping isn't a nice sight.
My old mum says she lives with that every day but at least she's married to the old bugger, but she doesn't want other old men's habits in her face.... So to speak.
In a utopian society i would agree, but sadly we are not. The NHS is on the road to bankruptcy and spending money on this, (whilst cutting staff, reducing beds,et al) just because it's not up to the private sector's standards-which MOST cannot afford- is not helping matters. Patient care first, fluffy pillows when we can afford it. Which sadly isn't going to be any time soon.

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