Skip to nav | Font Size: Normal Large Larger | High Contrast
· Your Voice In Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland ·
Home » Latest » Press Releases » The Patient and Client Council calls for single sex wards
The Patient and Client Council welcomes the publication today of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority report on Mixed Gender Accommodation in Hospital.
Privacy and dignity should be respected in every patient visit to hospital and particularly during hospital stays. Maeve Hully, the Chief Executive of the Patient and Client Council, said “This is an issue which has been discussed by our Local Advisory Committee members with Trust representatives. Patients, their families and their carers can find any stay in hospital worrying and distressful. People have told us that mixed sex wards can be a concern and make them feel uncomfortable.”
The Patient and Client Council believes that hospitals should provide all patients with single sex ward beds.
The Patient and Client Council will continue to ensure that people are supported to have their voice heard by key decision makers in Health and Social Care on this issue.
Comments are now closed
Philippa Whitham 16 Aug 2012 08:09
Dear Pcc,
It is great to hear that this very important issue is being addressed. I cant understand why the practice of single sex wards is still common practice in Northern Ireland. I work for the health service as a nurse in Scotland and the practice of sinigle sex wards is not practiced except for clinical areas such as ITU and HDU areas. When my father was in hospital nearly two years ago in the Ulster hospital in was in a mixed ward. I was shocked at the time that this practice is still common place in Northern ireland. I do hope that this issue will be sorted out in the very near future. It will help make hospital stays much more comfortable for the patients and help nurses etc to provide care that maintains the patient dignity and meets their clinical and personal needs.
Doreen Patton 14 Aug 2012 13:24
Mixed sex wards should not exist. All dignity is taken away from the patients. Relatives are uncomfortable when visiting. Will the Trusts be able to deliver when winter pressures are at its peak?. Will the bed managers and ED managers be happy when beds are available and patients of the oppossite sex are breaching their targets? There appears to be so much fear of breaching a target rather than patient care and dignity. There has been numerous attempts to end mixed sex wards for several years with no success.