Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many mixed-sex ward breaches there have been in NHS hospitals in England in each of the last five years.

All patients deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. The Government have 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. There are overriding operational and clinical reasons why patients might sometimes need to be placed in mixed wards or bays. The need to treat a patient safely and urgently must take priority. In such cases, the breach will be rectified as soon as possible.

Hospitals therefore need to take action to address breaches of mixed sex accommodation and put plans in place to avoid further breaches where it is appropriate to do so.

The number of breaches has fallen by 86.6% (as of April 2018) since reporting began in 2010.

Data on breaches of mixed sex accommodation are collected monthly and the annual totals for the last five years are shown in the following table.

Information on fines is not collected centrally.

Under the terms of the NHS Standard Contract 2017-18 to 2018-19, where breaches occur, the commissioner whose patient is affected must levy the financial sanction specified by the contract. That sanction is £250 (introduced in April 2011) for each day that a patient is affected by the breach.