Patients at risk of assault in mixed-sex wards scandal

The use of mixed-sex wards has gone “through the roof” after the number of men and women being put in beds next to each other soared to nearly its highest level in a decade.

- REBECCA THOMAS KATE DEVLIN

Official figures from NHS England show the government’s strict rules against doing so were broken nearly 5,000 times in February alone. NHS leaders voiced concerns over the high number of breaches and warned that care that was “unthinkable a decade ago is at risk of becoming the new normal”.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said patients were left feeling humiliated and at risk, adding: “The use of mixed-sex wards has gone through the roof under the Tories.” The government outlawed mixed wards in the NHS in 2010. Under the guidance, patients should not share wards overnight, share bathroom facilities or have to walk through areas occupied by patients of the opposite sex to get to the toilets.

When hospitals breach this they are required to report it to the NHS. Only in very few circumstances is mixed accommodation allowed – such as urgent admission to critical care.

Despite promises more than a decade ago to eliminate mixed wards, The Independent has found:

• 4,811 reported breaches in February, up from 3,789 last November
• Nurses warning “sky-high breaches” are the tip of the iceberg
• Evidence that patients are suffering sexual assaults while on mixed mental health wards  

Breaches are almost as high as the 4,929 breaches seen in February 2020, when Covid was ravaging the NHS and just weeks before ministers announced a nationwide lockdown to protect the health service, and the 4,938 seen last January.

Under the guidance, no mental health units should have mixed wards. However, earlier this year, The Independent revealed the practice is widespread, with more than 500 sexual assaults reported across almost half of the NHS mental health hospitals in England.