Apology over mixed ward distress

Gina Lawrie said she was traumatised by her treatment

NHS Grampian has apologised to a breast cancer patient after she was forced to share a ward with a convicted male prisoner, a drunk and a violent man.

Gina Lawrie, from Aberdeen, said she discharged herself rather than stay at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's ward 9.

The 54-year-old said she was surprised to find herself in a mixed ward after surgery to remove a cancerous lump.

NHS Grampian has publicly apologised for what happened, saying it was a temporary situation.

Ms Lawrie is now recovering at home and said she has not accepted the apology from NHS Grampian.

She said: "I'm furious, nobody should have to go through that.

Clearly we haven't reached the standards that we would normally expect to deliver and we need to do something to put that right name here

"It was bad enough finding out I had breast cancer, traumatic enough having to go through the surgery, without having to go through what I had to.

"I never slept all night and neither did the lady in the next bed to me. She was a pensioner and she had had major surgery, she had a bad heart.

"We were both sitting in her cubicle on her bed, we were scared stiff."

Ms Lawrie said she did not want anyone else to ever have to go through her ordeal.

She has been invited to meet with the health authority to discuss her complaint.

The executive has almost phased out mixed wards

NHS Grampian chief operating officer Richard Carey said: "I apologise publicly to Gina and the other patients in the ward for the distress that they experienced over the past few days.

"Clearly we haven't reached the standards that we would normally expect to deliver and we need to do something to put that right."

The Scottish Executive originally called for mixed wards to be phased out in Scottish hospitals by 2002.

Health Minister Andy Kerr said mixed sex wards had been eradicated in all but one hospital in Scotland, the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

He said Aberdeen's problems were temporary but insisted that patients must be told in advance if they are to be placed on a mixed sex ward.