HL Deb 02 March 2005 vol 670 cc28-9WA
Baroness Noakes

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Which National Health Service foundation trusts do not:

  1. (a) provide single-sex sleeping accommodation for planned admissions;
  2. (b) provide single-sex sleeping accommodation for non-planned admissions;
  3. (c) provide separate bathroom and toilet facilities for men and women; and
  4. (d) provide appropriate safe facilities for mentally-ill patients. [HL1147]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner)

This information is not currently available. National Health Service foundation trusts (NHSFTs) are independent organisations. They are no longer accountable to Ministers or the Department of Health but to their local communities, primary care trusts, Monitor (the statutory name for which is the independent regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts) and Parliament.

The Department of Health holds only that information about NHSFTs that Section 19(a) of the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 allows. This precludes the collection of operational data from NHSFTs unless specifically listed in Schedule 6 of the Terms of Authorisation (akin to a "licence" to operate) for NHSFTs.

Compliance with single-sex accommodation objectives is included in Schedule 6. NHS trusts, including NHSFTs, are required to report compliance on an annual basis. Reports of compliance at 31 December 2004 are currently being collated and we will report on this at a later date.

Nationally, at December 2003: 99 per cent of NHS trusts provided single-sex sleeping accommodation for planned admissions and have robust operational policies in place to protect patients' privacy and dignity; 99 per cent of NHS trusts met the additional criteria set to ensure the safety of patients who are mentally ill; and 97 per cent of NHS trusts provided properly segregated bathroom and toilet facilities for men and women.

The small percentage of NHS trusts which have yet to achieve the objectives have hospital development works underway, whose completion will bring them to the required standard. These figures do not include NHSFTs, the first of which were established from 1 April 2004.

NHS trusts are not required to report upon the provision of single-sex accommodation in relation to unplanned admissions. In such circumstances the use of mixed-sex accommodation may be unavoidable, as the need to provide urgent treatment or care will take precedence over the requirement to segregate men and women. This is regrettable. However, no hospital will turn a patient away because a bed appropriate to their gender is not immediately available.