Most NHS hospitals in England are poised to provide single sex wards and facilities for everyone by June next year, according to health minister Ann Keen.
She was referring to a report - Delivering Same-Sex Accommodation: the story so far - published by the delivering same sex accommodation task force.
The report says all trust improvement schemes supported by a £100m Department of Health privacy and dignity fund will be completed on time.
It says most NHS patients will sleep in single sex bays or wards and have access to single sex toilets and bathrooms.
Since January, it says, 200 trusts have commissioned 1,157 schemes across 400 sites, and “the activity and achievement on this intensive drive to eliminate mixed sex accommodation has been immense”.
The authors say: “We have been privileged to see what can be delivered when patient groups, clinicians, managers, politicians, architects, designers and the public come together to put people’s privacy and dignity at the centre of their planning.”
Patients Association director Katherine Murphy said: “After all the announcements on mixed sex wards since 1997 when the original pledge was made, we are still waiting for the only announcement patients are interested in - that they have abolished this undignified practice. We look forward to hearing that in June next year.”
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