Mixed-sex wards £53k fine threat at Stafford Hospital

More than 200 patients were forced to sleep in mixed-sex wards at Stafford Hospital in November with the hospital now the only one in the region to be flouting rules.

During November the hospital had 214 patients mixed together with the opposite sex – compared with 78 breaches in October.

In September the hospital had just 10 breaches.

Every other hospital in the Black Country and South Staffordshire recorded no breaches of the rules, brought in by the Government to end what it called the "indignity" of patients put on the same ward as the opposite sex.

Under the rules hospitals can be fined £250 for each patient sleeping on a mixed sex ward meaning Stafford Hospital could now face paying a fine of £53,500.

Bosses at the hospital say changes to the way the mixed-sex rules are monitored by the health authority is behind the increase.

Colin Ovington, director of nursing and midwifery said: "Given the changes in criteria, we are now altering the cardiac monitoring bay within our Acute Medical Unit to have two separate single sex bays."

Helen Jackson, spokesman for the SHA said: "We have a zero tolerance approach to the provision of mixed sex accommodation."

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