WHIPPS Cross Hospital will not eliminate all mixed sex wards by the end of the year - as required by the Department of Health.

Under new Government standards of dignity and privacy all NHS trusts must do away with 95 per cent of mixed sex wards by the end of the year. But the trust's lack of funds has meant not all wards can be upgraded to conform to the Government's guidelines.

At Friday's meeting of the hospital's NHS trust, members discussed what could be achieved by Christmas, and agreed a new mixed sex 24-bed "decant" ward would be built with private sections for both men and women.

This ward will be used when the demand for beds in a single sex ward is high.

The remaining hospital wards will be single sex or mixed sex with separate parts for men and women. Improvement works will be carried out on four other wards, Lister, Bracken, Cedar and Elizabeth.

The report by Doug Wantling, director of estates and facilities, said: "It is recognised that this position may be difficult to sustain during the winter but the trust intends to make every effort to comply with the Government's standards on dignity and privacy by the due date."

Chairman of Waltham Forest CHC John Beanse said: "There is an obvious contradiction here. The Government requires us to eliminate mixed sex wards."

The trust's deputy chairman Ros Levenson said a lot of patients coming into Whipps Cross are elderly women who find mixed sex wards "offensive." Ms Levenson said: "We will not be able to eliminate mixed sex wards until we have the new building."

The trust hopes to have the 24-bed facility available in October, and for the upgrading works to be finished before Christmas.

The Nursing Directorate is currently working on guidelines for how mixed sex wards are to operate, and how male and female patients in opposite sex wards are to be managed.

July 11, 2002 10:30