Degradation, filth and shame in an NHS hospital on mixed sex wards
Twenty-four hours to save the NHS! I wonder how often that promise comes back to haunt Tony Bliar 10 years later. Week after week reliable reports and the government’s own figures tell a disgraceful story of incompetence, debt, misery and filth in the National Health Service. That story is supported, week after week, by heart-rending personal accounts of horrors on the wards.
The broken new Labour promise that caught most public attention last week was the failure to abolish mixed-sex wards. Janet Street-Porter, the ferocious media personality, wrote about the misery of her sister when dying of cancer in a mixed-sex NHS ward. Plenty of other people have tried to draw attention to this disgrace and Baroness Knight, the Conservative peer, has been campaigning about it for years but — such is the spirit of the times — it takes a loud-mouth celebrity to get public attention.
The same thing happened when Lord Winston made a fuss about the dreadful treatment that his elderly mother received in hospital. Only then did the government stop denying that there was anything wrong.
Street-Porter published extracts last week of the diary of Patricia Balsom, her dying sister. They were horrifying. Among the miseries she endured was lying neglected in a mixed ward, where she was woken more than once to see a naked male patient masturbating opposite her bed. Her shocking stories prompted a flood of others.
The late Eileen Fahey, for instance, dying of cancer, was put onto a mixed geriatric ward where confused people wandered about without supervision. One man with dementia regularly masturbated at the nurses’ station and tried to get into women patients’ beds; he was a threat to them all but staff took no notice, according to her daughter Maureen. Other patients have to give answers to intimate questions in the hearing of other patients. One deaf old man was repeatedly asked when he last had an erection, until tears ran down his cheeks.
A former midwife described eloquently on Radio 4 the indignities of being in a 24-bed mixed-sex ward, stripped of all dignity and intimidated. Bedlam was the word she used, and it applies even more accurately to the secure psychiatric mixed ward in London endured by Susan Craig last year, after a breakdown. She suffered regular sexual harassment, with mentally ill men groping her and exposing themselves. The nurses disbelieved her and told her husband she was “flaunting herself”.
If so (I don’t believe them), their job was to protect a patient from her own folly. Instead they chose, in modern cant, to blame the victim.
Sexual harassment is only a small part of the problem. Many people, both men and women, feel their modesty is violated by such closeness to random members of the opposite sex, even when they are not threatened.
Patients lie naked, half washed and forgotten, their sick and ageing flesh exposed to everyone, while nurses rush elsewhere. It is commonplace to have to walk to filthy mixed lavatories with gowns wide open at the back. At a time of sickness and anxiety many people are profoundly embarrassed to be surrounded by a clutter of bed pans, colostomy bags, nakedness, cries of pain and sweat, blood and tears — their own and other people’s.
All this is much worse, for many, when they are surrounded by members of the opposite sex; shame and anxiety are not the best bedfellows of hope and healing.
Much has been written about the rape of modesty and the death of shame. However, it is still true in this weary country that most men and women prefer to perform private bodily functions alone if possible, and among their own sex only, if not. That’s why we have separate public lavatories and separate changing rooms in shops and clubs and pubs. That’s why people put up towels on the beach. That’s why women give birth in female wards, not in mixed wards or not — I hope — so far.
Admittedly there are some who believe that mixed wards are not a problem, but our prime minister is not one. “Is it really beyond the collective wits of the government and health administrators to deal with the problem?” he demanded in 1996, flying high on vectors of dizzying youthful indignation as leader of the opposition. “It’s not just a question of money,” he went on. “It’s a question of political will.” Well, he said it and he promised to end mixed-sex wards by 2002.
What we have come to expect of new Labour promises, following failure, changing the goalposts, more failure and exposure, is denial. Sure enough Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, was sent onto the Today programme in denial mode last week.
Although the Healthcare Commission watchdog found that on average 22% of patients have to stay in mixed-sex wards, rising to 60% in some hospitals, Hewitt’s officials at the Department of Health say the government has achieved its target of abolishing mixed-sex wards, with 99% of trusts providing single-sex accommodation.
It is not difficult to spot the problem with that claim. It is not the same as saying 99% of patients get single-sex accommodation; it may be “provided” for very few. There has been the usual goalpost shifting: hospitals can claim they are providing single-sex accommodation by putting screens between beds in mixed-sex wards. Brilliant.
Hewitt admits there was a problem of perception; she even admitted that there was a “clear gap” between patients’ experiences and figures provided by hospital trusts to the Department of Health. One does tend to have a problem of perception, I find, if one is being misled.
My feeling is that mixed-sex wards are not the worst of NHS hospitals’ problems, although they demonstrate them. They demonstrate the incompetence and deviousness of hospital management in general, and they also show something worse.
In all the stories I’ve come across what stands out is the ignorance, incompetence, laziness and heartlessness of all too many nurses, who are allowed to neglect and insult their patients without supervision and without sanction — in single-sex wards just as much as mixed.
Bliar did not just promise to abolish mixed-sex wards, he also promised to save the entire NHS. He believes in divine judgment; I wonder how he will answer.
This posting was aided by:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2472127,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2472127_2,00.html
Health Direct first covered the broken promises of closing mixed sex wards nearly two years ago on February 13, 2005 in Labour lies on mixed sex wards revealed The promise to eliminate mixed "Nightingale" wards – occupied by up to 30 male and female patients – was first made by Tony Blair during the 1997 election campaign. Then, in 2001, it was pledged that all 366 mixed-sex "Nightingale" wards would be ended by April last year (2004) . It was another missed target.
Earlier this year (2005) , the Department of Health claimed that 98 per cent of wards were single-sex. The Telegraph discovered that this figure cannot be trusted, as NHS trusts, confronted with our photographic evidence, admitted last week to not officially registering the existence of wards such as the one shown here, at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford, Essex.
And again a week later Health Direct reported Feb 21, 2005 when Five more hospitals have 'hidden' mixed-sex wards when an investigation by The Telegraph discovered that five more hospitals have mixed-sex wards despite claiming that they do not, increasing the pressure on the Government to end the degrading practice.
Last week we published details of four similar hospitals with mixed wards, and exposed Labour's failure to honour its pledge to eliminate them. In the past seven days our investigation has uncovered a further five hospitals treating patients in mixed wards despite officially claiming to only have single-sex accommodation.
Labour first promised to close all mixed wards in 1997 and again in 2001 but so far three separate deadlines have been missed. The Government has claimed that mixed wards persist in older buildings awaiting refurbishment. Yet one of the five uncovered this week is Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, which is one of the country's newest.
Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary and MP for South Cambridgeshire, which includes Addenbrooke's Hospital, said: "The target culture Labour have imposed on the NHS has meant that managers are obsessed with waiting times to the exclusion of patients' privacy and dignity."
Brighton and Sussex University Hospital NHS Trust, which covers the Royal Sussex County Hospital, said it had no "official" mixed-sex wards. When confronted with our evidence, however, it admitted that it put men in beds next to women because of waiting list pressures.
Desmond Turner, the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, said: "Patients should quite rightly be upset. The hospital does not have these wards as a policy but at the moment it clearly does happen."
The three other hospitals discovered to have mixed wards were the Queen Elizabeth II, in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire; the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex and the Darrent Valley Hospital, Dartford, Kent.
The broken new Labour promise that caught most public attention last week was the failure to abolish mixed-sex wards. Janet Street-Porter, the ferocious media personality, wrote about the misery of her sister when dying of cancer in a mixed-sex NHS ward. Plenty of other people have tried to draw attention to this disgrace and Baroness Knight, the Conservative peer, has been campaigning about it for years but — such is the spirit of the times — it takes a loud-mouth celebrity to get public attention.
The same thing happened when Lord Winston made a fuss about the dreadful treatment that his elderly mother received in hospital. Only then did the government stop denying that there was anything wrong.
Street-Porter published extracts last week of the diary of Patricia Balsom, her dying sister. They were horrifying. Among the miseries she endured was lying neglected in a mixed ward, where she was woken more than once to see a naked male patient masturbating opposite her bed. Her shocking stories prompted a flood of others.
The late Eileen Fahey, for instance, dying of cancer, was put onto a mixed geriatric ward where confused people wandered about without supervision. One man with dementia regularly masturbated at the nurses’ station and tried to get into women patients’ beds; he was a threat to them all but staff took no notice, according to her daughter Maureen. Other patients have to give answers to intimate questions in the hearing of other patients. One deaf old man was repeatedly asked when he last had an erection, until tears ran down his cheeks.
A former midwife described eloquently on Radio 4 the indignities of being in a 24-bed mixed-sex ward, stripped of all dignity and intimidated. Bedlam was the word she used, and it applies even more accurately to the secure psychiatric mixed ward in London endured by Susan Craig last year, after a breakdown. She suffered regular sexual harassment, with mentally ill men groping her and exposing themselves. The nurses disbelieved her and told her husband she was “flaunting herself”.
If so (I don’t believe them), their job was to protect a patient from her own folly. Instead they chose, in modern cant, to blame the victim.
Sexual harassment is only a small part of the problem. Many people, both men and women, feel their modesty is violated by such closeness to random members of the opposite sex, even when they are not threatened.
Patients lie naked, half washed and forgotten, their sick and ageing flesh exposed to everyone, while nurses rush elsewhere. It is commonplace to have to walk to filthy mixed lavatories with gowns wide open at the back. At a time of sickness and anxiety many people are profoundly embarrassed to be surrounded by a clutter of bed pans, colostomy bags, nakedness, cries of pain and sweat, blood and tears — their own and other people’s.
All this is much worse, for many, when they are surrounded by members of the opposite sex; shame and anxiety are not the best bedfellows of hope and healing.
Much has been written about the rape of modesty and the death of shame. However, it is still true in this weary country that most men and women prefer to perform private bodily functions alone if possible, and among their own sex only, if not. That’s why we have separate public lavatories and separate changing rooms in shops and clubs and pubs. That’s why people put up towels on the beach. That’s why women give birth in female wards, not in mixed wards or not — I hope — so far.
Admittedly there are some who believe that mixed wards are not a problem, but our prime minister is not one. “Is it really beyond the collective wits of the government and health administrators to deal with the problem?” he demanded in 1996, flying high on vectors of dizzying youthful indignation as leader of the opposition. “It’s not just a question of money,” he went on. “It’s a question of political will.” Well, he said it and he promised to end mixed-sex wards by 2002.
What we have come to expect of new Labour promises, following failure, changing the goalposts, more failure and exposure, is denial. Sure enough Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, was sent onto the Today programme in denial mode last week.
Although the Healthcare Commission watchdog found that on average 22% of patients have to stay in mixed-sex wards, rising to 60% in some hospitals, Hewitt’s officials at the Department of Health say the government has achieved its target of abolishing mixed-sex wards, with 99% of trusts providing single-sex accommodation.
It is not difficult to spot the problem with that claim. It is not the same as saying 99% of patients get single-sex accommodation; it may be “provided” for very few. There has been the usual goalpost shifting: hospitals can claim they are providing single-sex accommodation by putting screens between beds in mixed-sex wards. Brilliant.
Hewitt admits there was a problem of perception; she even admitted that there was a “clear gap” between patients’ experiences and figures provided by hospital trusts to the Department of Health. One does tend to have a problem of perception, I find, if one is being misled.
My feeling is that mixed-sex wards are not the worst of NHS hospitals’ problems, although they demonstrate them. They demonstrate the incompetence and deviousness of hospital management in general, and they also show something worse.
In all the stories I’ve come across what stands out is the ignorance, incompetence, laziness and heartlessness of all too many nurses, who are allowed to neglect and insult their patients without supervision and without sanction — in single-sex wards just as much as mixed.
Bliar did not just promise to abolish mixed-sex wards, he also promised to save the entire NHS. He believes in divine judgment; I wonder how he will answer.
This posting was aided by:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2472127,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2472127_2,00.html
Health Direct first covered the broken promises of closing mixed sex wards nearly two years ago on February 13, 2005 in Labour lies on mixed sex wards revealed The promise to eliminate mixed "Nightingale" wards – occupied by up to 30 male and female patients – was first made by Tony Blair during the 1997 election campaign. Then, in 2001, it was pledged that all 366 mixed-sex "Nightingale" wards would be ended by April last year (2004) . It was another missed target.
Earlier this year (2005) , the Department of Health claimed that 98 per cent of wards were single-sex. The Telegraph discovered that this figure cannot be trusted, as NHS trusts, confronted with our photographic evidence, admitted last week to not officially registering the existence of wards such as the one shown here, at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford, Essex.
And again a week later Health Direct reported Feb 21, 2005 when Five more hospitals have 'hidden' mixed-sex wards when an investigation by The Telegraph discovered that five more hospitals have mixed-sex wards despite claiming that they do not, increasing the pressure on the Government to end the degrading practice.
Last week we published details of four similar hospitals with mixed wards, and exposed Labour's failure to honour its pledge to eliminate them. In the past seven days our investigation has uncovered a further five hospitals treating patients in mixed wards despite officially claiming to only have single-sex accommodation.
Labour first promised to close all mixed wards in 1997 and again in 2001 but so far three separate deadlines have been missed. The Government has claimed that mixed wards persist in older buildings awaiting refurbishment. Yet one of the five uncovered this week is Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, which is one of the country's newest.
Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary and MP for South Cambridgeshire, which includes Addenbrooke's Hospital, said: "The target culture Labour have imposed on the NHS has meant that managers are obsessed with waiting times to the exclusion of patients' privacy and dignity."
Brighton and Sussex University Hospital NHS Trust, which covers the Royal Sussex County Hospital, said it had no "official" mixed-sex wards. When confronted with our evidence, however, it admitted that it put men in beds next to women because of waiting list pressures.
Desmond Turner, the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, said: "Patients should quite rightly be upset. The hospital does not have these wards as a policy but at the moment it clearly does happen."
The three other hospitals discovered to have mixed wards were the Queen Elizabeth II, in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire; the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex and the Darrent Valley Hospital, Dartford, Kent.
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