CALDERDALE and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust is to get £187,000 to help get rid of mixed sex wards.
The Trust – which runs Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital – will receive the funding from the Department of Health to move towards single sex only wards.
The cash is part of £10.5m of Government money being given to hospitals by NHS Yorkshire and Humber to help them meet the Government’s directive.
In January, Health Secretary Alan Johnson told hospitals they had 14 months to eliminate mixed sex wards – or face losing financial penalties on a sliding scale.
Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust only had mixed sex facilities in its ‘urgent care’ wards.
It will use the funding to change this, providing additional toilets and bathrooms, improved curtains for better privacy in bed areas and improved signage to make sure patients understand the new facilities.
Helen Thomson, Director of Nursing, said: “We are constantly improving and upgrading facilities for our patients and the award will enable us to extend this further.
“The additional work required under the terms of the latest guidelines is already underway and will make sure we continue to meet the high standards of privacy and dignity for our patients.”
The Health Secretary said making male and female patients share ward and toilet facilities was not compatible with the NHS’s focus on dignity and respect.
A £100million Privacy and Dignity Fund was set up to help hospitals transform their wards.
Trusts have until June this year to come up with a plan for their wards.
This can involve creating separate sleeping bays and separate toilets and bathrooms that can be reached without being in close proximity to the opposite sex.
Some wards may be entirely single sex, while others may be split into single rooms, with adjacent single sex toilets and washing facilities.
Or wards may be split into bays to accommodate either men or when, with single sex bathrooms within or next to the bays.
Professor Sue Proctor, NHS Yorkshire and Humber’s director of patient care, said: “In the vast majority of hospitals in our region, the alterations will not have to be drastic, just a few simple changes will go a long way to ensuring everyone is treated with the dignity and privacy they deserve.”
Kathryn Riddle, NHS Yorkshire and Humber chairman, added: “This is something which simply must be done. A person’s privacy and dignity is always important, but at a time when they are vulnerable and ill, it becomes even more so.”
