Single Sex Hospital Wards

[WorriedRelative]

Regular reader and occasional poster on FWR I have name changed for privacy.

Elderly female relative is in hospital, in a two bed room with a shared bathroom which is part of a larger ward with various bays and rooms. Two patients in the room separated only by a curtain.

There is no way for staff to see either bed without opening the door and coming in.

Relative has just overheard a comment by one of the hospital staff to the other patient that indicates this individual is male, although their name is female.

Relative is understandably upset that they aren't in single sex accomodation and weren't aware. However they don't feel able to say anything or speak to staff as this person is just a curtain away. The family are concerned about this but don't really know what to do for the best.

She doesn't want to make a fuss or risk being treated differently but worrying about her privacy is not going to make recovering any easier.

Any advice appreciated - thanks

You go and make a big fuss on her behalf! Contact PALS and if no joy go to the Chief Exec and CQC.

What was the comment?

I have already been on the PALS website but they need patient consent which I don't have.

If I contact the chef exec or CQC won't I end up having to identify the patient too? I have offered to complain on her behalf and she doesn't want me to.

I am happy to make generic complaints but will this achieve anything? Will the hospital be able to check whether they have any transgender inpatients on wards that don't match their birth sex?

Make as much noise as you can.

This will be the hospital's lovely kind inclusive policy. Point out to them that it's not at all kind or inclusive to your relative and in fact is using an elderly, unwell woman to validate a man's feelings.

I bet staff have raised concerns and been shut down. That's what happened to me. If you can, your voice is needed.

I have emailed PALS, I referred to the policy on same sex bays and asked how this was applied to transgender patients. I also asked whether a patient being placed on a bay with a person of the opposite sex should be informed that it was mixed sex.

I mentioned that a relative was upset because they are being cared for alongside a person of the opposite sex and only found out by chance. That they now feel upset due to their privacy and dignity not being respected and this is affecting their recovery but they don't feel able to raise it with staff due to how sensitive a topic it is.

Hopefully their reply will enable me to address it further.

Any other ideas about what I can do without identifying my relative against her wishes would be appreciated.

Out of interest what was the comment?

My male relative was on a critical care ward with 4 bed bays. When I visited him, the 3 other beds in his bay were occupied by women. I know he wasn’t happy about this and the lack of privacy.

I know this particular bay was the closest to the nurses station and was used for the most serious patients. This was necessary so the nursing staff could reach them quickly if their monitoring indicated a rapid deterioration requiring urgent treatment.

Ideally there would have been 2 x 4 bed single sex bays a similar distance from the nurses station.

I do think Intensive and Critical Care are slightly different as clinical need has to take priority. On non-critical wards I agree bays should be single sex.

All you can do is raise it with PALS and say your relative wants to remain anonymous because they are concerned about repercussions.

She was on a mixed sex ward years ago in critical care. That's understandable because of clinical need and she wasn't upset by that. Everyone was seriously ill, nobody was getting out of bed, and the staff were in the room all the time. Also everyone knew it was mixed and took extra care re privacy.

This is a normal ward, with the usual mix of bays and private rooms.

My relative believed she was sharing with another woman.

To add to the concern this is an odd side room for two people only, with no line of sight to the staff, and the only way to summon them is with the bell, calling out wouldn't work. I am not saying this person has any untoward intentions but if they did...

In my experience as an NHS nurse this is happening a lot more frequently. The excuse! It is due to lack of capacity and the need to open the escalation area. This apparently makes it ok. Myself and many colleagues have challenged it and I encourage my patients to raise it with PALS.

@WorriedRelative that does sound bad.

I really don’t know how you can raise it when there are only two patients as it would be fairly easy to work out who an anonymous complaint was from. I am sorry.

Critical care is different, it doesn't come under the single sex regulations as the need for specialist care, and the scarcity of ITU beds, means that clinical need supercedes the single sex regulations.

The fudging of single sex wards - calling them single sex but actually making them single gender - is built into NHS policy. It's insidious. The policy at my Trust is that transpeople must be accomodated in the single sex bay of their choice, with no consideration for the wants or needs of anyone else in the bay. The other patients are essentially just props to what the trans patient wants.

Staff are forbidden from discussing the trans identity of that patient if another patient asks, (which is characterised as breaching the trans patient's privacy, like we haven't all got eyes), and the policy actually states that any patients objecting to sharing with a trans IDing person of the opposite sex should be treated the same as racists objecting to sharing with a person of a different race. It puts staff in an impossible position, either they risk a disciplinary for breaching confidentiality, or they gaslight the other patients if they are concerned.

OP I hope your relative gets well soon.

Look up Annex B. This absolutely is happening.

But why wouldn't it be happening?

Man says he is a woman and the NHS now treats him as a woman.
This is what transactivists campaigned for, they got exactly what they wanted.

If you're the type of person that says "they just have to pee, you bigot", you're complicit in this situation.

That's not what I said, I'm just asking for the critical piece of information.

I disagree with mixed sex spaces completely.

You are only showing yourself up by prejudging.

@nothingcomestonothing

I don't disagree, I'm just asking for the critical piece of information.

...And finding it interesting that it's been repeatedly ignored.

Don't be so bloody rude. Has it occurred to you that the OP has a life away from MN - particularly when she has a sick relative - and perhaps doesn’t have chance or the desire to “hop to it” when you demand an immediate answer to your rather intrusive question?

It doesn't matter what the comment was, it was said by a man, in a room with a woman, who only wants to be in a room with another woman

Single sex wards matter

It doesn't suddenly make it ok because of the words he used...

It isn’t a critical piece of information. It could be as simple as using the words “she” and “penis” in the same sentence. You’re really just being nosy.

If memory serves, a CCG (now ICB) had that policy for their local hospitals and was successfully challenged

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4295007-Bristol-clinical-commissioning-group-refuses-to-endorse-trans-toolkit-after-public-consultation

This is hilarious, calm down 😂😂

On the note of not having a life outside Mumsnet...... 😂

On that note, it's been lovely, but clearly no one here cares about accurate and full stories.

Surprising. 👀

Have fabulous days, try and get some fresh air.

Why does your relative feel threatened by this person?