“Mixed” hospital wards - thought we’d seen the last of these

I don’t think it’s transphobic to feel uncomfortable with this although some hospitals have had mixed wards for some time. The most worrying thing is in prisons where sexual offenders who are trans are put in women’s prisons and subsequently assault the other inmates.

Both those situations have been deliberately brought about by Stonewall, and other trans-supporting organisations, giving training to the NHS, Prison Service, schools etc which mis-represented the law.
They claimed that gender identity supersedes sex at all times, which is not what the law says.

My mother spent the last three months of her life in what I suppose was a mixed ward. One ward, different bays. I never saw and she never reported any infringements of the system by men. There were one or two women in, obviously with dementia who wandered a bit. The staff were endlessly patient with them and tried to persuade them to stay put. On the whole it was well organised and very caring, and rehabilitated many people. Shoud it be closed down because it's mixed? I don't think so. It's well supervised and regulated and as there are many more women patients than men segregation for the elderly might mean a longer wait for a bed. As it is if there are more women they just reassign one of the bays.

I think there is either a need for mixed wards or there isnt, some of the stories from women on mixed wards would indicate there is.

My mother in a mental health ward was woken up one night by a wandering male patient leaning over her. Wards are desperately short staffed, there aren't the staff available to keep the sexes apart, and she was so distressed

Looks like a case of the fox is in charge of the hen house.

If there isnt enough staff now, how will they cope with this situation?
If something happens to a patient in their care, of course the individual staff will be castigated.
Alk to achieve what?

Horrible idea, especially in the mental health sector. Enough to send you off the planet with wandering men around when you are vulnerable. Some of the patients in mental health facilities are there because they have had terrible experiences at the hands of the opposite sex. How bad for them, doesn’t bear thinking about.

I was in a mixed ward for ten days in 2005 and never felt uncomfortable or under threat, but that was before the transgender lobby became so powerful.
I am more concerned by the statement: Some trusts have labelled those who express discomfort as transphobic, compared them to racists in official guidelines and ordered staff to report them to police for hate crimes.
Some patients, my elderly parent amongst them, have made uncharacteristic and inappropriate comments when they are not 'in their right minds'; the staff were aware of this and treated them sympathetically.

I had a knife held at my throat and was threatened by a male patient in a mixed ward.

The perpetrator was arrested, but once let go came back on the ward at 3.00 am.

The hospital said they couldn’t guarantee my safety so I was given the option to go to another hospital or to go home full of tubes!
I went home.

It was a traumatic time, I was 36 with three children and had just had a tumour removed from my thyroid gland.
I was very ill and frightened.

The hospital trust and the police were involved,it culminated in the hospital being the first in the UK with a manned police station.

It still shocks me today how in normal times anyone can access a hospital and wards, safety notices everywhere warning that attacks on staff will end in prosecution etc yet very little is done to protect patients.

I am totally against mixed wards and I believe there are many patients that should be treated away from the general public.

I was left with severe PTSD and I’m still living with the aftermath.

I think hospitals differ so much it would be impossible to have a single rule. There were two similar large rehab wards in my mums, both mixed. The proportion of women was much larger, so if the two wards were reassigned the men's one would be half empty and the women's overflowing. This would undoubtedly mean women would wait longer for a bed or be moved out before they were well enough. It certainly wouldn't give them a better service. There may be some hospitals where it would be easier to segregate.

Honestly, the idea that worrying about this is akin to racism and homophobia is gaslighting at its worst.

I'm sorry to hear your story, Sago. that must have been traumatic.

Sago how awful for you. It sounds to me as if you were let down terribly.

But you do make a very good point about who takes responsibility for the patients safey?

It's easy to make regulations from the sidelines, just to placate a noisy minority.

How dreadful Sago and this really shows how careful they should be. I am not surprised you are traumatised from such a terrible experience. I am very much against mixed wards and cannot understand why, if there are six wards, why three cannot be for women and three for men. Transgender patients should be kept close to the nurses station so they can keep an eye on them.

trisher I take your point about the cost and logistics involved.

But I think it's more about whether this is a precedent that benefits the majority.
Or a political victory that devalues another group.

Oh Sago that sounds awful. No wonder you are still traumatised xx

My MIL has been in hospital recently and safeguarding assessments are done if the bay has to be mixed sex. I suppose the self identification muddies that and it is left to interpretation of the law and that is what worries me.

Doesn't bear thinking about Sago- I am so sorry you went through this trauma.

Big wards should be a thing of the past - and are also causing huge problems with bed shortages, as when patients are in a ward with Covid- the other beds have to remain empty.

New hospitals are being built with single rooms to allow maximum flexibility of bed use, but males and females will still be housed in single rooms on the same ward. The majority of wards operate on a ‘bay’ basis, with one end designated for men and one for women, but as there are generally more women than men, a bay on the opposite side is regularly used for women as needed.

Only people who have never worked in a hospital environment would suggest totally separate wards for men and women for each speciality, as that would be very wasteful in terms of bed use. If you mixed specialities to put all women on one area you would end up with say, orthopedic and general medical patients on the same ward, where the nursing skills are completely different, and that would result in a deterioration in care, with doctors, physios etc. having to visit people on multiple wards, relationships between ward teams are critical for optimum care.

Patients are all risk assessed on admission, and it’s actually rare for there to be incidents with male patients. Ironically it’s probably most common on maternity wards with partners and ex partners attacking women who have just given birth.

There’s no easy answer.

eazybee

I was in a mixed ward for ten days in 2005 and never felt uncomfortable or under threat, but that was before the transgender lobby became so powerful.
I am more concerned by the statement: Some trusts have labelled those who express discomfort as transphobic, compared them to racists in official guidelines and ordered staff to report them to police for hate crimes.
Some patients, my elderly parent amongst them, have made uncharacteristic and inappropriate comments when they are not 'in their right minds'; the staff were aware of this and treated them sympathetically.

I'm not 'concerned', I'm horrified by that statement, eazybee.

What is the NHS Trust thinking of!
Glad that Javid is reviewing this right-on nonsense.

This is not just about mixed-sex wards - it is about convicted male sex offenders being placed on wards 'according to the gender they identify with'.

How that can be seen as a grey area where 'it is impossible to have a single rule' is beyond me.

It seems to me that there's always someone who wishes to abuse loopholes. I think that the needs of women undergoing medical care should be a first consideration, not a last. Even if it is inconvenient.

Sago what an awful experience for you!

Wards with bays for males and bays for females is one thing. Allowing male sex people who self id as women to be admitted to a female bay is quite another. Discomfort of the many for the desire of one individual is wrong and that discomfort is not transphobic. Would it be OK to object to a male who identifies as male being given his preference of joining the females?