Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-05-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to take action against hospital trusts which continue to breach mixed-sex accommodation guidance.
Lord Prior of Brampton
All patients deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and the Government has made it clear that providers of National Health Service funded care are expected to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation, except where this is in the overall best interest of the patient, or reflects their personal choice.
Since 2010, there has been a fall from almost 12,000 patients in mixed-sex accommodation to 753 reported in March 2016. We will continue to monitor monthly breach data and performance across the NHS in partnership with NHS England. The financial penalty for non-delivery of the operational standard is mandated through the NHS Standard Contract 2016/17, and applies to all providers of acute, cancer and mental health services.
Under the terms of the Contract, where a breach occurs, the commissioner whose patient is affected must levy the financial sanction specified by the Contract. That sanction is £250 for each day that patient is affected by the breach.
Delivering zero breaches for every trust, every month, is unlikely. This is because there will be some occasions where patients are mixed appropriately, even when their clinical care needs do not demand it (for example if a patient is admitted in the middle of the night and the only way to release an appropriate bed is to awaken and move other patients).
