The number of patients who have to endure the indignity of being on a mixed sex ward has hit a six-year high, figures revealed yesterday.
Some 1,140 patients had to sleep on the wards last month, the highest figure since October 2011.
Last year alone, 10,110 were put on the wards – an average of 200 patients every week.
This figure has doubled in two years and is four times higher than the same period in 2015. Critics say the wards are dehumanising and frightening, with one MP calling the practice ‘an affront to basic human dignity’.
Some 1,140 patients had to sleep on the wards last month, the highest figure since October 2011. File photo
It is particularly humiliating for the elderly, who are forced to share bathrooms with the opposite sex, often wearing little more than nightclothes or gowns.
Ministers repeated a promise to end the so-called wards of shame in 2010 following a long-running Daily Mail campaign.
They introduced £250 fines for hospitals for every time there was a mixed sex breach and initially the figures fell. But they have since climbed as cash-strapped hospitals have become overcrowded.
Figures published by NHS England show that 50 of the 150 hospital trusts reported at least one mixed sex breach last month.
East Kent Hospitals was the worst with 134 breaches, followed by Dartford and Gravesham hospitals in the same county at 104.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Judith Jolly said: ‘It is an affront to basic human dignity. But these shocking figures show that progress made towards ending this intolerable practice is being completely undone.’
Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s health secretary, said: ‘It reveals a bigger picture of overcrowded and overstretched hospitals as a result of Tory underfunding and mismanagement. Ministers simply cannot carry on burying their heads in the sand.’
Phillippa Hentsch, head of analysis at NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, said: ‘These figures are a reminder that when resources are overstretched there is a risk that the quality of care and patient experience may be affected.’
Ministers first promised to end mixed sex wards in 1994.
The Labour government repeated the promises in 1999 but in 2008 said it was ‘not achievable’.
In 2010 the Coalition government announced they would abolish the wards once and for all and introduced £250 fines the following year.
Breaches dropped by 90 per cent over 2011. But they have since risen as hospitals are so full they are forced to place patients with the opposite sex.
A spokesman from NHS Improvement, which regulates hospitals, said: ‘The overwhelming majority of breaches take place in acute trusts, who are dealing with emergency cases where the only option to ensure patient safety is to place them on a mixed ward.’
Hospitals will struggle to cope this winter because they have failed to free up enough beds, the NHS watchdog has warned.
About 3,700 beds are currently occupied by bed-blocking patients who are well enough to go home. Hospitals were meant to reduce the number to 2,500 by September.
Jim Mackey, head of NHS Improvement, said: ‘Winter pressures may be difficult and will place the system under even greater pressures.’