24.01.11
Hospitals face large fines for mixed-sex care breaches
Hospitals are shaking up their mixed-sex care policies to avoid fines coming in from April.
The health secretary Andrew Lansley branded the continued practice of placing men and women together on wards with no justification “unacceptable” and announced a £250 per patient per day fine.
In December, around half of hospitals ignored rules on mixed-sex care, affecting 11,000 patients. The DoH data showed 92% of breaches taking place in acute hospital trusts.
Mr Lansley said: “By April, we expect every hospital to be capable of meeting the single sex accommodation standard.
“We are increasing the number of single rooms in the NHS to ensure no patient suffers this indignity when it is unjustified.”
The money will be ‘reinvested’ into NHS care – which some campaigners have branded ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’.
The DoH said it was publishing the data to give patients the chance to avoid hospitals continually failing on mixed-sex care.
Under the previous system, PCTs set the fines – often at a very large level – but they were rarely enforced.
Fines totalling £132,000 levelled against The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, for example, for 178 breaches during December, might be written off by the PCT.
A spokesman told the Leicester Mercury newspaper: “There is a level of discretion which can be applied to the fines and the PCTs are in discussions with Leicester's hospitals regarding the circumstances.”
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