Same-sex accommodation standards

Hinchingbrooke Same Sex Declaration

Hinchingbrooke is proud to announce ‘that we are fully compliant in the DoH Standard on single sex accommodation’, meaning that patients who are admitted to our hospital will only share the room where they sleep with members of the same sex, and same sex toilets and bathrooms will be close to their bed area.  Sharing with members of the opposite sex will only happen by exception based on clinical need for example where patients need specialist equipment such as in ITU or CCU or when requiring close clinical observation such as stroke monitoring, or when patients choose to share for example when undergoing dialysis or chemotherapy.

In order to achieve this, the Trust over the last year has invested over £2m of capital to refurbish all non-compliant areas.  In addition considerable effort has been invested in training personnel in procedures that reflect good practice in preserving patient’s privacy and dignity along with raising awareness of gender issues.

The Trust now has fit for purpose, compliant accommodation supported by practices and processes to prevent mixed sex occurrences (MSOs) along with robust monitoring and reporting arrangements.

There is of course more work to do to embed these new arrangements.  We continue to make improvements in this area and recognise the importance of providing gender specific accommodation as well respecting privacy and dignity for all patients.

The need to deliver the highest standards of privacy and dignity applies equally to all areas of healthcare. Achieving these high standards will usually mean ensuring that men and women do not have to sleep in the same room or share toilet and washing facilities. Patients should not have to pass through areas used by the opposite sex to reach their own facilities. Same-sex accommodation can be provided in:

• same-sex wards, where the whole ward is occupied by men or women only
• single rooms, or 
• mixed wards, where men and women are in separate bays or rooms, and at Hinchingbrooke this has been achieved through the use of ensuite facilities being situated within individual bays.

However, at times, there may be no alternative to treating men and women together, for example in high-tech care (with one-to-one nursing), very specialized care or urgent/emergency care. Staff must look at the impact on all patients involved, and patients should be moved to same-sex accommodation as soon as possible.