Is this an end to sharing? (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Is this an end to sharing?

3:20pm Tuesday 7th July 2009 in

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PATIENTS at a Winchester hospital are now less likely to be treated on mixed-gender wards, health chiefs heard.

It comes after the Royal Hampshire County Hospital was named amongst Britain’s worst for making men and women share wards and bathrooms.

Steps are being taken to tackle the problem, Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Healthcare Trust’s board heard last Wednesday (June 24).

Chief nurse, Paula Shobbrook, said the issue came up in a survey last year that put Winchester in the worst 20 per cent for mixed wards.

She said: “We’re not proud to report that, but I’m not surprised about that, because the work we have put in place commenced after the survey was done.”

The trust is spending £232,000 of extra government cash to give patients more privacy. It includes new curtains for clinical areas that are due to arrive in Winchester later this month.

Chief operating officer, Maggie Oldham, said the priority for most patients was getting better, rather than being on single-sex wards. However, she said they could not ignore the issue. “It’s not going to go away. It’s very high in the Department of Health and this government’s manifesto,” she said.

Last year’s survey found that 60 per cent of Winchester patients were placed on mixed-gender wards, or had to share bathrooms at some point.

Mike Gretton, who chairs the trust, said: “That’s very high, and it’s got to come down.”

One reason health chiefs believe the figure is so high is because the Emergency Medical Unit is not segregated.

The EMU is the next stage after accident and emergency, where tests are carried out to diagnose illnesses and injuries.

While patients only spend a brief time there, it counts towards the 60 per cent figure, even if patients are kept apart for the rest of their stay.

Health chiefs are now drawing up plans to segregate the EMU, along with the intensive care, high dependency and coronary care units.

Proposals are likely to emerge within a few months, although money to carry out the changes will need to be found.

All the other areas of the hospital are now being segregated, the board heard.