Privacy and Dignity

Statement of Compliance: Eliminating Mixed Sex Accommodation 

CPFT is pleased to confirm that we are compliant with the Government’s requirement to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation.

We have the necessary facilities, resources and culture to ensure that patients who are admitted to wards on our sites will either have their own bedroom or only share the room/bay that they sleep in with members of the same sex. Same-sex toilets and bathrooms will be close to their bed area. If our care should fall short of the required standard, we will report it and act on it. 

CPFT monitors privacy and dignity through incident reports, through PALS and complaints, as well as through patient experience visits and feedback. We will undertake an annual audit to ensure compliance with this standard. We will publish our statement of compliance on our website.

Please click on the link below for a copy of our Eliminating Mixed Sex Accommodation Report.

Eliminating mixed sex accomodation report 2018.pdf 347KB

What does this mean for our patients?
Same-sex accommodation means that patients admitted to wards on our sites at CPFT can expect to find the following:

• The room/bay where your bed is will either be a single room or, if shared, have only patients of the same gender as yourself.
• If you are a transgender patient, you have equal rights to access single sex wards as any other man or woman and therefore should be admitted to a ward in accordance with your preferred gender.You will normally be treated according to your preferred gender, unless there are strong reasons to the contrary which will be discussed with you. Your toilet and bathroom will be just for your gender, and will be close to your bed area
• It is possible that there will be both male and female patients on the ward and you may have to cross a ward corridor to reach your bathroom. However, you will not have to walk through opposite-sex areas
• You may share some communal living spaces, such as lounges or dining rooms, and it is very likely that you will see both male and female patients as you move around the ward.
• In mixed gender mental health and learning disability wards, a female only lounge is provided in accordance with the Mental Health Act Code of Practice. Unless accompanied by nursing staff, visitors are expected to make use of communal day areas, lounges or other visiting facilities rather than patient bedrooms
• If you need additional help to use the toilet or take a bath (eg, you need a hoist or special bath) then you may be taken to a “unisex” bathroom used by both males and females. A member of staff will be with you and other patients will not be in the bathroom at the same time.

Our commitment to privacy and dignity
Every patient has the right to receive high-quality care that is safe, effective and respects their privacy and dignity. CPFT is committed to providing every patient with same-sex accommodation, because it helps to safeguard their privacy and dignity when they are often at their most vulnerable.

CPFT also ensures that our staff are supported and trained to understand what privacy and dignity means in practice.

How will we measure how we are doing?
CPFT undertakes the national annual patient survey for the Care Quality Commission and uses the results of this to inform our service development work.

In addition, we undertake our own surveys that include specific questions on same-sex accommodation and privacy and dignity issues. We have developed a patient experience system so that patients and carers can give us feedback about privacy and dignity issues, as well as other care issues.

This feedback system is available directly to patients pre- or post-discharge, and also available through our website. We also make use of feedback through our PALS and complaints service to improve patient experience.

Reports on all patient experience feedback and developments are made to our Quality, Safety and Governance Committee and to the Board. They are also made available to our commissioners.

Privacy and dignity concerns – PALS 
We want to know about your experiences. Please contact CPFT's Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) if you have any comments or concerns. The contact number is:

Freephone 0800 376 0775
T 01223 726774 (during office hours)

A confidential e-mail service is also available at palsandcomplaints@cpft.nhs.uk