The use of mixed sex wards in hospitals in England has soared to the highest number in a single month for nearly 15 years – despite health secretary Wes Streeting slamming the practice under the last Conservative government.
Official figures from NHS England show strict rules against their use were breached more than 5,000 times in January, for the first time since 2011.
The most recent month for which there is data available, October, saw 4,801 breaches, higher than the 3,953 recorded during the same month in which the Tories were in charge of the health service, in 2023.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) hit out at the practice, which it said was “undignified and unsafe” as it called for urgent investment to increase both bed capacity and the ability for people to be treated at home and away from overwhelmed hospitals.
In response to inquiries from The Independent the government said it was “not acceptable” for patients to share sleeping accommodation with members of the opposite sex and it was reminding hospital trusts “robustly” on this point.
Before last year’s general election, Mr Streeting criticised the continued use of mixed-sex wards, which he said had gone “through the roof” under the last Conservative government.
Under official guidance that was updated in 2012, 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.
The shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew said: “It is a disgrace that mixed-sex ward breaches are at their highest point in more than a decade.
“No patient should be left feeling exposed or unsafe, yet thousands are.”
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive, NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said that patients’ safety, dignity and clinical needs were always a top priority but added: “Sometimes caring for people in mixed wards can’t be helped as a result of extreme pressure on available beds”.
He said that NHS trusts do everything they can to avoid it but “on occasion it’s better to be looking after a patient in a mixed sex ward, rather than have to treat someone in a temporary space like a corridor due to a lack of free beds – which can be down to lots of factors including very high demand or delays discharging some patients well enough to leave hospital but who have nowhere to go.”
The last time the number of breaches was over 5,000 in a single month was in March 2011, three months after the NHS started to record the numbers in the wake of the mass public outcry. By May of that year they had fallen to below 2,000 a month and by the end of the year numbered only in the hundreds.
And that is how they stayed until late 2017, when they began to climb again. Under the last Conservative government there were a number of months in which the number of breaches totalled over 4,000.
At the time Mr Streeting said patients had been left at risk and feeling humiliated, but the first time the figure topped 5,000 in a single month was under Labour, in January, the official figures show. That month the rules were broken 5,180 times, a breach rate of 2.7 per cent. A year earlier, before Labour came to power, the figure was 4,404, a rate of 2.6 per cent. In December the figure was 4,549, also higher than the previous year’s 3,522, (2.7 per cent vs 2.2 per cent). June also saw breaches higher than the same month the previous year, 4,559 to and 3,881, (2.5 per cent vs 2.2 per cent).
Even during the Covid pandemic the highest recorded figure was 4,929 in February 2020, although counting was suspended until October that year as the NHS came under pressure.
The Royal College of Nursing’s chief nursing officer, Lynn Woolsey, said: “Rising mixed-sex ward breaches is a sign of a health service under severe strain, which has too little space and too few beds to meet surging demand. It is common for patients to be placed in corridors and even store cupboards, with understaffed and overworked nursing teams forced to treat patients in crowded environments without easy access to life saving equipment. The practice is undignified, unsafe and simply cannot go on.
“The Secretary of State must act with urgent investment to increase bed capacity and improve nurse staffing levels in hospitals, and, vitally, funding for community teams to enable people to be treated at home and away from overwhelmed hospitals.”
Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Helen Morgan said: “A hospital stay is one of the most stressful and vulnerable situations any one of us can experience. It is utterly unacceptable that patients are being forced into mixed sex wards – adding fuel to the fire of stress and worry.
“Every patient deserves to be comfortable and to be treated with dignity and respect, not left in inappropriate conditions because wards are overflowing.
“In the face of a winter crisis this will only get worse. The government needs to bring forward an emergency package of extra social care places and more staffed beds or patients will continue to face unacceptable conditions”.
A government spokesperson said: “The use of mixed sex wards soared under the Tories, and are another sign of just how damaged the NHS became under their watch.
“As we look to fix the harm they’ve done, we’ve been clear – the safety, dignity and privacy of patients is crucial, and NHS Trusts are expected to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation.
“Even with high flu cases and demand for services at unprecedented levels, it is not acceptable for patients to share sleeping accommodation with members of the opposite sex, and trusts are reminded robustly on this point.”