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.

Not keen on mixed wards but needs must at times.

The mixed toilets thing I don’t understand the fuss about - I remember travelling on the continent in the 80s and using mixed toilets and not being bothered in the slightest and that was as a teenager. Would bother me even less now.

@MorganKitten
"You realise most ICU wards are and have been mixed for years, if you are in a coma or dying wouldn’t you rather have the care needed?"
In my local hospital, which is only a few years old, the ICU ward I visited has a central nurses' station and single rooms with ante rooms for patients which are all accessed from this central area. Visitors have to be buzzed in by the nurses' station and are told which room their loved one is in. A nurse at the station telephones staff in the patient's room to tell them a visitor is coming and the visitor is met at the door between the ante room and patient's room and escorted in. All ICU patients receive 1:1 care and staff cannot leave the patient unattended in the room at any time. Staff have to telephone for cover if they need to leave to obtain supplies or visit a toilet.

So, although the ward may be single sex, everyone has their own self-contained room. As security is so good and the patients are generally on life support or unconscious or in comas, it doesn't matter that the ward is mixed.

For normal wards it definitely does matter.

I feel absolutely fine about it. I think some females (and males too I guess) should be able to request female/male only wards because of previous abuse etc but for the average person I don’t think it’s an issue.

If they are contained cubicles then fine. I can't say I would think they would be more dirty than public toilets generally. Women are fucking disgusting animals judging by some of the state of the toilets I've been in with blood up the walls and shit all over the toilet.

Wards, no I would really hate that. But, I understand the NHS is on it's knees so if it's about cost cutting or making improvements to service it's (sort of) understandable.

Someone started a petition about it.

www.change.org/p/matthew-hancock-mp-the-nhs-must-assure-single-sex-patient-accommodation

All the wards bar maternity in my two nearest hospitals are mixed sex.

Until I found myself on one the first time I had thought they were a thing of the past. Nope.

It's horrendous.

I don't like them, they make me uncomfortable

@YesQueen
"A bar near me has a great set up. Fully enclosed cubicles, ceiling to floor solid doors. Shared wash basins in an open space (the actual toilet area is sort of off set from a corridor so visible)"
On a previous thread I remember females commenting on not wanting shared washing facilities because some washed out menstrual cups or perhaps got blood on their hands when on a period. Understandably, they did not want to be seen to be washing menstrual blood off. Others cycled to and from work so needed to be able to change clothing or wash themselves so wanted the single sex environment.

Where I live, mixed wards are the norm. I understand it's for efficiency, but it would be nice if a little care was taken with placing people in those wards. Most have 6-bed bays which could easily be made either male or female . As it is, every bay has men and women mixed in together and it's awful.

My elderly MIL was in a big city hospital recently - she was stuck there in a bay with one other woman and four old men . The men were wandering around in hospital gowns with their genitals hanging out for all to see , and generally being revolting . Poor MIL ended up having to have her curtains constantly drawn around her bed so she wouldn't have to have these men's bits on view all the time.

I don't want and won't avail myself of either. I'm due to have surgery soon and I can promise you that if I find a man on my ward I'll create merry hell about it.

Oh, and "separate bays" is still a mixed sex ward. If you can see and hear men from your bed, have them walking past you, have to walk past them, then it's a fucking mixed sex ward.

So sick of people claiming this separate bays bullshit constitutes single sex provision. It fucking does not.

It's a massive NO to both from me. It's one of the reasons I fight to stay out of hospital, despite having a chronic illness. I can't bear the thought of sleeping in a room with people I don't know. If men are going to be allowed in women's spaces because they 'identify' as a woman then the world has gone fucking crazy. I 'identify' as a purple unicorn, it doesn't make me one! Yet again we see the stealthy erosion of women's safe spaces because, you know, the menz don't feel special enough. It's bad enough having 'male or female' bays on wards. It's horrible to feel so vulnerable and before anyone has a go at me, yes some men do stare and make women feel uncomfortable. The last female bay I was in, had a male bay next to it, and the men had to walk through the female bay to get to toilets etc! I'm sure it wasn't comfortable for them either, but the fact is If I'm ill and in bed and not wanting to cover up as it's so hot, I don't want to have strange men walking past me constantly. One made a point of walking up and down constantly all day and night, obviously enjoying getting an eyeful when vulnerable female patients were getting washed and dressed. No one stopped him!

After my major gynae surgery, which had complications, the recovery ward was mixed sex and I didn't like it as I was having vaginal examinations whilst heavily sedated (but aware) amidst lots of curtain swishing. I felt terribly exposed and helpless.

I was then supposed to be moved to a female only gynae ward but it was full.

The bed manager found me a side room in the end, well into the night. (Her decision.) I'd have tried to go home if I'd been stuck in with men I didn't know much longer.

@katalavenete exactly!

As it is, every bay has men and women mixed in together and it's awful.

I've been on a surgical ward like that. Just remembering it makes me feel like crying.

I discharged myself from a mixed ward last year. Less than 12 hours on one was enough. It was undignified for both male and female patients.

I shake my head in utter despair that such a tiny minority is completely changing the face of society here in the UK as we know it.

@AutumnCrow that's exactly the kind of thing I mean. I don't blame you for wanting to leave, I'd have done the same.

@WrongKindOfFace yes 1 staff to 4 beds is high when people go on break...

I still have some PTSD after surviving male violence. I’m mostly better, but would really struggle with mixed loos and wards, especially when I’m a vulnerable state.

I’d probably end up risking my health rather than spending time in those situations. If I had no choice - well, I’d probably need time in a mental hospital to recover from the relapse brought on by sleepless nights and constant alertness.

I have effectively been on a mixed sex ward when DS was ill, on an open ward, someone needs to stay with him and there was a dad staying with a teenager with LD as well. He snored horrendously but because DS was asleep early and the dad only came in late each evening (teenager needed an overnight treatment every night) I didn't have to interact. But it wasn't ideal and I have no idea what to do about such children's wards. Other times we've been in with DS he's had a private room but DH and I need to take turns for our sanity.

Toilets yes for adults IF proper full cubicle with wash basin (we have some of these at work and they are fine) and if in shops etc big enough for a buggy. No if just cubicles off a washing area and no for schools because of teenage girls being teased if seen to go to a loo off a corridor.

This government knows that mixed sex wards are universally hated - yet they have let this tiny minority remove them from the rest of the population.
No to mixed sex wards
No to mixed sex toilets

No I wouldn't like it. It would be acceptable if they brought back the matrons and ward sisters of the past with their monitoring station in the room or just better staff ratios. My only experience is of the maternity ward, but the midwifes liked to hide out in their office and ignored buzzers.

and no for schools because of teenage girls being teased if seen to go to a loo off a corridor

Sorry, what?

Years ago l was on a mixed ward the men wandered around in their boxer shorts/underwear when pajamas are provided so l kept my curtains closed and when asked to open them l said no due to not wanting the view of strange men walking around dressed this way.
My son also worried about me being vulnerable in the ward.

As to mixed-sex toilets this is Lazyness and cost-cutting which can lead to opportunities for abuse. Plus the reality that men's toilets are much smellier than womans l would rather wet my pants than use a mixed-use facility.
l'm sure that some people will find my comments offensive but it is my personal preference to privacy when toileting.

It's one of the worries girls talk about if there are single cubicles in a public place. I remember being petrified someone would spot my sanitary towel up my sleeve at 12 so I can believe some girls worry about this.