All new hospitals in Wales will be built to ensure the provision of single-sex accommodation, Labour’s Health Minister Edwina Hart is expected to announce tomorrow.
Mrs Hart is also expected to order existing hospitals that have mixed gender wards to undertake a review of their facilities to ensure that separate areas for male and female patients and separate bathroom and toilet facilities are provided. Guidance currently states that Trusts should have local policies and protocols in place, but the new rules would mean uniformity across Wales.
The announcement will follow the publication of a report detailing a series of recommendations by a working group made up of nursing staff and health representative bodies including the Royal College of Nursing, UNISON and the Royal College of Midwives.
Mrs Hart is expected to say: “The One Wales agreement commits the Assembly Government to improving the patient experience. Patients expect and deserve the utmost dignity in the care they receive and we must do more to ensure that the highest standards of care are provided. This new guidance will ensure that we raise that quality higher. There is no group better placed to make recommendations on this issue than nurses and their representative organisations in Wales.”
Tomorrow’s report will also include recommendations on improving hospital cleanliness, protecting patients’ visiting times and mealtimes and a new all-Wales uniform for nursing staff.
