To ask how you all feel about mixed sex loos and wards?

[Toorahtoorahaye]

Just in the past day or so there have been discussions on social media about the new NHS guidelines that allows patients to choose which sexed ward they feel most comfortable in reality making wards mixed sex. And today the Old Vic is also following the recent trend to make its loos mixed sex - mixed sex with urinals, mixed sex with with stalls and gender neutral loos. Just wondering how folk feel about the end of single sex wards and loos for mixed sex provision.

Thats horrific, rape in hospitals.

The NHS need holding to account not protecting vulnerable patients.

Put a solid boundary and lock in place!!

Curtains and over-worked staff are totally inadequate.

NHS are actively making patients more vulnerable!

Well, I suppose that another way of preventing women from accessing medical treatment.

I won't be going. I'd rather stay home than risk being raped.

I will sit at the bedside of my dc if they have to go in.

Mixed sex toilets don't really bother me - it isn't as if anyone is waving a penis around as you pee in the cubicle. Mixed sex wards are fine, as long as it's separate rooms. Mixed sex wards with the rows of beds would be very very difficult for a lot of people.

So whats your view bat of those numbers of women and children being assaulted in them?

Is that ok too? Or do you just pretend the trauma to those women and children isn't real, doesn't matter, they dont need protecting, we don't all need protection feom assault when vulnerable/naked/needing privacy/dignity?

Actually, you're wrong.

They do do exactly that. I have had the misfortune to witness exactly that three times this summer.

Men exposing themselves to women.

AnyMinuteNow - I'm confused. You get naked in the public area of shared toilets?

bat

Mixed wards are fine. There are plenty staff around.

And curtains.

GeorginaDove Police statistic - 35 rapes at hospital locations so far this year in West Midlands alone.
www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/shock-rape-figures-at-hospital-17014301

Mixed wards are fine. There are plenty staff around

Have you stayed in one for any length of time? I found it very difficult and it added to an already crap situation. I didn't feel unsafe but I found keeping my dignity (already in tatters) a challenge while trying to limp to the showers past a load of men.

Mixed wards are fine. There are plenty staff around.

Bollocks! The staff are usually trying to do 16 hrs worth of work in 12 hours! They don’t have time to supervise a mixed ward, in order to protect the patients. Then there’s even less staff at night, when patients are even more vulnerable.

Curtains aren’t walls! They can easily be opened and can also be used to hide an abuser and their victim.

Plus, and most importantly. What about the rights to dignity and safety, when a patient is feeling is already feeling vulnerable. I spent 25yrs working in a hospital and it was practically routine to have male patients that would expose themselves or sexually harass the staff. You think those kind of men are going to behave in a civilised manner, when sharing with vulnerable women? I’ve only ever had one woman behave in such a way and that was as a result of a serious head injury.

GeorgianaDovesHouse

Mixed wards are fine. There are plenty staff around and curtains

Are you being deliberately goady, or do you have zero empathy for raped women?

Serious question,because, from whats been said on this thread and the stats linked to you do know you are wrong, right?

Curtains don't keep anyone out, what a joke!

What planet are you on that there are plenty of staff? Do you cover your eyes and ears mostly to have been ignorant of NHS issues, and assaults on women?

No dont like the concept

Mixed wards are fine. There are plenty staff around.

When were you last in hospital? I've never noticed all these extra staff.

And curtains.

Oh yes, so dignified and private.

I would not want to be on a mixed sex ward. I would feel vulnerable. I also hate toilets that both males and females have to use. If I was out and there were only toilets shared by men and women I would go home. At home I use our en suite and dh uses family bathroom as I don't even like sharing with my own dh.

When my dh was in hospital recently and another patient was attached to a machine that made a loud buzz noise I was worried and rushed around for almost 5 mins before I could find a nurse. It turned out not to be important but it made me think what if an emergency happened. The flimsy curtains do not offer any level of privacy at all. You can hear everything said to patient in next bed and I have seen a nurse just open them up to talk to a nurse behind curtain when man had hardly any clothes on and in vulnerable position. Nurse was quite blaze about it too.

I recently had surgery & could not even sit up without assistance. Every night when my DH had to leave I cried as I felt so vunerable on an all female ward, the thought of a man being on the ward makes me feel sick. It's a hard no from me, I can't believe anyone would think this is a good idea.
And for those of you saying there are enough staff around, I had to press the buzzer 3 times before a nurse came to give me my medication that I was supposed to receive every 2 hours but in reality was lucky if I received it with in 4 hours - This happened every day I was in. Dh would ask everyone on the ward if they needed anything before he left as he knew we were unlikely to get it from the staff.

What about the approx. 1 in 5 women who have already experienced/been subjected to rape & other forms of sexual violence? The NHS still has no appropriate cervical screening for them/us. Is it really fair to expect anyone to have to disclose in order to feel psychologically let alone physically safe in a hospital?

It is worth remembering that according to MoJ stats 2018 & 2019, 99.1% of sexual offenders are biological sex: male while
90+% of those sexually offended against are biological sex: female.
According to a leading barrister

With all that is said about mental health, what about the impact on mental health of survivors of sexual violence...including those who wake up in an ICU, potentially terrified out of their wits.

Incidentally, the NHS carry out ZERO DBS checks on male patients... and a GP is not required to communicate to a hospital that a patient has convictions for sexual offences, even sexual offences against children... Run that through any rational risk-assessment … that is not in denial about the overwhelmingly uni-directional nature of rape & sexual violence.
My MP told me of a transman who insisted on imprisonment in a male prison...they departed the prison in a body bag after suicide. Personal choice then, doesn't seem to be such a good idea.

I have been on mixed-sex wards a few times, and have had bad experiences. If this happens again rather than trust in the system I will self-discharge again. Even if it puts me back in hospital straight away which has previously happened.
It's written into my notes to not put me on wards, even separated by bays with males. It is extremely well documented medically the reasons for this. Hopefully, my needs will be adhered to, and this week I will be on a single-sex ward. Although I haven't been asked. Now I am starting to panic (complexed MH).

Who's vulnerability and safety should come first? Those who have legally protected rights, or those who claim something?

You can call yourself tomato if you want, just don't demand to come to the apple space because you feel like it.

Mixed wards are fine. There are plenty staff around
Really? Could you explain then how at times patients can wait around 2 hours for pain meds?
A ward of 24 patients with 4 night staff how is that plenty?

In fact the LAW mandates "same-sex" wards but the NHS which deals in medical facts... is suggesting that some biological males should be introduced into female only wards because they "gender identify AS women". To me there is a clear difference between female and male and just because biological males "gender identify AS women" doesn't mean they have any place on a female ward. The majority retain male genitalia & male proclivities wrt to those genitalia, it is not suitable. IF the NHS can afford to waste money making women go for cervical screening to the GP when a DIY kit is far cheaper then surely they have plenty of funds for separate accommodation within the male provision. The other problem is that transmen should not be put on male wards for their own safety. The MAJOR problem though is that MEDICAL decisions are taken on the basis NOT of gender identity but wrt symptoms that collect wrt BIOLOGICAL SEX. The danger is to transwomen & transmen that in an emergency the WRONG decisions are taken because gender presentation is perceived to be biological sex. I saw a report of a transman dying and of a transman already in an xray with a sonographer only realising too late that she had not asked if they might be pregnant. The sonographer felt awful about it as an ethical thing but she could not see that it was a transman until they were already in the xray. In this case it is not the transman who would be affected but theur unborn child if pregnant.

As with any demographic 90% are hetero- or bi-sexual... thus 90% transmen orientated to males and 90% transwomen orientated to females. Placing according to biological sex also creates clarity about treatment routes.

I'd hate mixed wards. If you're in one in a hospital it's because you're ill and not in a good state to defend yourself. I'm not keen on mixed public loos either, if that means a row of inadequately shielded toilets and only a communal washing area for rinsing mooncups in. If they're individual toilets with washing facilities included it doesn't matter.

I'm not ok with mixed wards or mixed loo's.

In fact the LAW mandates "same-sex" wards

Are you sure? It’s very widely flouted if it is