NHS England slammed for relaxing single-sex hospital rules after fines for breaches were quietly dropped
“Permanently downgrading services for patients is not just unacceptable but, if it is snuck through in a quiet contractual change without even asking patients what they think, utterly outrageous.”
By Harriet Clugston
Friday, 28th January
Campaigners have accused the NHS of relaxing rules banning mixed-sex hospital wards by the back door, after financial penalties for non-compliance were quietly dropped from care contracts.
A flat rate £250-per-rule-break fine was previously enshrined in the NHS Standard Contract, used when commissioning care for patients in England, meaning hospitals could face steep penalties for consistent flouting of single-sex ward rules.
But the sanctions were quietly dropped from the contracts in a rewrite by NHS England last April – with one charity claiming patients were not asked for their views first.
All other financial sanctions designed to ensure adherence to quality of care measures were also dropped, including on long waits for cancer treatment or failure to check up on patients discharged from mental health facilities.
Mixed-sex wards were banned in England in 2010. There are similar rules in other UK nations.
But the Nuffield Trust, a health think tank, said rule breaches were “unfortunately very common” in the NHS before Covid – a symptom of “hospitals running close to capacity” – and had likely worsened during the pandemic.
Continued at:
www.nationalworld.com/health/nhs-england-slammed-for-relaxing-single-sex-hospital-rules-after-fines-for-breaches-were-quietly-dropped-3545517
Hospitals in England broke single-sex hospital ward rules thousands of times in November
Rule breaking was at a record high for November in England, as the NHS is criticised for scrapping fines for hospitals that fail to maintain single-sex sleeping accommodation.
By Harriet Clugston
Friday, 28th January
NHS rules banning mixed-sex hospital wards were broken more times last November than at any point on record for that month in England.
Hospital trusts fell foul of the rules for ensuring single-sex provision 2,586 times in November, the highest number recorded for that month since records began in 2011.
This was before Omicron’s arrival in the UK led to a rise in the number of Covid patients.
In November 2019, there were 1,968 breaches.
NHS England’s usual monthly report on rule breaches recorded by hospital trusts across the country was paused during Covid, but recently resumed.
A rule breach, otherwise known as ‘unjustified mixing’, is recorded each time a patient is placed in sleeping accommodation with a member of the opposite sex where it cannot be justified by clinical need – for instance if they need to be admitted to critical care.
Sleeping accommodation includes any area where patients are admitted and cared for on beds or trolleys, even if they do not stay overnight.
Mixed-sex wards were banned in England in 2010. There are similar rules in other UK nations, but data on breaches is not proactively published.
Continued at:
www.nationalworld.com/health/hospitals-in-england-broke-single-sex-hospital-ward-rules-thousands-of-times-in-november-3546068
Never heard of this publication before.
"A message from the editor:
Thank you for reading. NationalWorld is a new national news brand, produced by a team of journalists, editors, video producers and designers who live and work across the UK. Find out more about who’s who in the team, and our editorial values. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going. You can also sign up to our newsletters and get a curated selection of our best reads to your inbox every day."
==========
So the NHS is not even pretending to have single-sex wards now? The dropping of all sanctions on quality of care breaches is frankly horrifying!