NHS East Midlands, the Strategic Health Authority, has today announced funding of £8.4m to help the region’s hospitals provide same-sex accommodation for patients in their care.
The monies are part of the £100m Privacy and Dignity fund, announced by Health Secretary Alan Johnson in January 2009, and will help deliver the Government’s pledge on same-sex accommodation. This means that men and women will not have to share sleeping areas, bathrooms or toilets with a member of the opposite sex when admitted to hospital and that their privacy and dignity is upheld whenever possible*.
In the East Midlands the funding will help deliver 36 projects across 12 NHS organisations including acute trusts, foundation trusts and mental health trusts.
Work in the region began in April 2009 and the major areas benefitting from the £8.4m funding are toilet and bathroom facilities. By improving existing, and adding more, WCs and washing facilities same-sex accommodation can be better provided.
Other improvements include better signage in hospitals so patients know where their same-sex toilet and bathroom facilities are; improved communication between staff and patients; building work such as relocation of corridor doors; new curtains and a pilot scheme which introduces ward hostesses to ‘meet and greet’ patients
Lynn Andrews, Assistant Director of Patient Care at NHS East Midlands says: “We are delighted to have been awarded this funding which will help further build upon the hard work in the region’s hospitals to provide same-sex accommodation. There are a large number of projects including small, simple to large scale and innovative, all of which will help make quick improvements to patients’ privacy and dignity.”
NHS East Midlands will also be launching a campaign which will look at providing better communication with patients and public in the region. Its aim is to ensure that patients know what to expect when they are admitted into one of the region’s hospitals for an overnight stay, and that their friends and families are comforted that the patient’s privacy and dignity is being respected.
Lynn Andrews adds: “We’ve decided to run this campaign based on feedback from patients and public through independent polling and focus groups which found that many patients are confused by what they have a right to expect when they are admitted for an overnight stay in hospital. They don’t know that there are separate toilets allocated for their same-sex use and that they shouldn’t have to encounter a member of the opposite sex when using washing facilities. We hope that the campaign will help bring clarity to all patients in the region regardless of where they’re being treated in the NHS.”
Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: “Nationally 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.”
To ensure that the improvements are delivered to a high standard and on time the Department of Health has set up a national improvement team to support hospitals and monitor all improvement works.
