Mixed sex wards go as £1.1m work done

Patients at two Black Country hospitals will never again have to share a ward with members of the opposite sex.

Mixed gender wards at Sandwell General Hospital and Heath Lane Hospital, West Bromwich, have been abolished.

It comes after more than £1 million of work was completed. Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust was given £710,000 for three schemes by the Department of Health. Richard Kirby, chief operating officer for the trust, said a further £150,000 had been put forward by the trust.

At Sandwell Hospital the money has been used to put additional partitions across the ends of bays so that beds are completely separated from the ward corridors.

The work at Sandwell Hospital has now finished with the same work set to take place at Rowley and City Hospitals.

Mr Kirby said: "The Victorian nightingale wards at City Hospital present a more significant challenge.

"Although some are currently single-sex, such as male surgery, female surgery, gynaecology and gynae-oncology, the majority are specialty based.

"There wards are organised with men at one end and women at the other, a privacy screen dividing the ward.

"Patients have to pass members of the opposite sex as they enter and leave."

Sandwell Mental Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust was allocated £296,000.

It used the money to improve the 12-bed Heath Lane Hospital in West Bromwich which looks after people with learning disabilities.

There are two bedrooms, a lounge and a garden area for female patients.

Two rooms have been annexed to the new single sex wards which can be used for either male or female patients as and when needed.

Joe Kimberley, head of estates and facilities, said: "The work has been a complete success and response from our patients has been very positive."

The new £400 million acute "superhospital" planned for Smethwick will have single sex wards.