Lansley to ‘end’ mixed-sex wards
By politics.co.uk staff
The coalition government will attempt to end mixed-sex wards in NHS hospitals in an attempt to recover patients’ ‘dignity’.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley is expected to ask chief nursing officer Dame Christine Beasley to inspect hospitals with mixed-sex wards and oversee the transition from existing arrangements.
Labour manifestos for their twin election landslides of 1997 and 2001 included pledges to end same-sex wards, but former health minister Lord Darzi said the same-sex bays within wards was more realistic in 2008.
He described same-sex wards as an “aspiration that cannot be met”.
Mr Lansley said: “I have made clear repeatedly my deep frustration at the fact that mixed-sex accommodation has not been eliminated from the NHS.
“Eliminating mixed-sex accommodation is in patients’ best interests, and I made clear the priority I attach to it in the revised operating framework published in June. I will have more to say on this shortly.”
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said the move was “nothing more than an empty gesture”, however.
He pointed out the Labour government had attempted a “huge drive” to abolish mixed-sex wards and added: “They’re pretty much gone except in hospitals where the layout makes it impossible.”
