Same-sex wards 'to improve stay'

Wards, surgery and washing facilities are being improved

Work to provide separate facilities for men and women in hospitals in Cornwall will make a big difference for patients, health managers have said.

The £750,000 programme is being carried out at hospitals in Truro, Hayle and Penzance run by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT).

It includes works to improve wards and washing facilities.

Hospital trusts with patients in mixed-sex wards, without good reason, by 2010-2011 face a penalty.

Modesty screening

The trust has been working on the building programme to improve Truro's Royal Cornwall Hospital, the West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance and St Michael's Hospital in Hayle, since the beginning of the year.

At the Royal Cornwall Hospital, works have included the provision of new bathrooms on Wellington and Godolphin wards and the hospital's short-stay unit.

Modesty screening and improved shower facilities are being built at the West Cornwall St Michael's hospitals.

The surgery department at West Cornwall Hospital is also being altered to create same sex areas, including bathrooms, a day room and a private interview room.

Income threat

When finished, the hospitals will meet the government's new Privacy and Dignity Guidelines surrounding same sex wards and bathroom facilities, something it has not been able to do before, the trust said.

Acting trust chief executive Peter Colclough said: "We have made sure that our staff are fully behind the initiative and are committed to striving to achieve the same sex accommodation targets because they recognise what it means to patients.

He added: "It will make a huge difference to the quality of the experience patients' have during their stay."

The government said hospitals would lose up to 2% of their income if they could not prove the mixed-sex accommodation was clinically justifiable.

The £750,000 for the works has come the government's £100m Privacy and Dignity Fund.