Darlington Primary Care Trust

Every patient has the right to receive high quality care that is safe, effective and respects their privacy and dignity. County Durham and Darlington Community Health Services is committed to providing every patient with same sex accommodation, because it helps to safeguard their privacy and dignity when they are often at their most vulnerable. Executive level leadership is provided by the Director of Nursing, Allied Health Professionals and Clinical Quality. Reports relating to delivering same sex accommodation will be reported to the Board and Community Quality Review Group monthly.

We are proud to confirm that mixed sex accommodation has been virtually eliminated in our trust. Patients who are admitted to any of our community hospitals will only share the room where they sleep with members of the same sex, and same sex toilets and bathrooms will be close to their bed area.

All wards within our community hospital are separated into bays and side rooms. This means that men and women will be on the same ward but will not share sleeping, bathing or toilet facilities.

Sharing with members of the opposite sex will only happen in exceptional circumstances based on clinical need. In these instances, every effort will be made to rectify the situation as soon as possible and staff will take extra care that privacy and dignity is maintained.

What does this mean for patients?

Patients admitted to community hospitals within County Durham and Darlington Community Health Services can expect to find the following:

Same sex-accommodation means: • The room where your bed is will only have patients of the same sex as you • Your toilet and bathroom will be just for your gender, and will be close to your bed area

It is possible that there will be both men and women patients on the ward, but they will not share your sleeping area. You may have to cross a ward corridor to reach your bathroom, but you will not have to walk through opposite-sex areas.

You may share some communal space, such as day rooms or dining rooms, and it is very likely that you will see both men and women patients as you move around the hospital (e.g. on your way to physiotherapy).

It is probable that visitors of the opposite gender will come into the room where your bed is, and this may include patients visiting each other.

It is almost certain that both male and female nurses, doctors and other staff will come into your bed area.

The NHS will not turn patients away just because a “right-sex” bed is not immediately available

What are our plans for the future?

County Durham and Darlington Community Health Services has already carried out work to improve the privacy and dignity for our patients and has an action plan in place to ensure this work remains high on the agenda for the organisation.

Most bays and side rooms have en suite toilet facilities to improve privacy for patients. Visual displays on wards provide information to patients and visitors relating to same sex accommodation and our commitment to maintaining privacy and dignity at all times.

Signs on bathrooms and toilets will be replaced with pictorial signs that are interchangeable to reflect the gender of the patients in the nearby bay.

Patient information leaflets and bedside information packs will include information on same sex accommodation. An explanation of what patients can expect in relation to same sex accommodation will be provided on initial assessment at admission.

Essence of care privacy and dignity benchmarking will be completed and service improvement action plans developed to address any identified issues.

Real-time discharge questionnaires have been developed to capture patient feedback, these will be analysed monthly and the findings will be reported to the community hospitals to develop improvement plans.

How will we measure success?

Results of real-time patient experience will be monitored to ensure improvement is maintained.

Delivering same sex accommodation will be included as a category on our electronic incident reporting system to enable monthly monitoring of related complaints, incidents and PALS issues.

What do I do if I think I am in mixed sex accommodation?

If you think you are in mixed sex accommodation, please speak to the nurse in charge of the ward or area you are in. This will be taken extremely serious by staff and immediate action will be taken to explain the reasons behind this and assurance will be provided that you will be moved to same sex accommodation as soon as possible.

We want to know about your experiences. Please contact Linzi Quinn, Patient Experience Manager at linzi.quinn@nhs.net telephone 0191 3740107 if you have any comments or concerns.