Bolton’s NHS trust broke the single-sex ward rule more than 100 times in six months, new figures have revealed, with the organisation stating the incidents occurred during the pandemic.

According to figures, a rule preventing patients of different sexes from being treated on the same ward was broken more than 100 times at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust over a six-month period.

It comes as the number of breaches across England has soared since the pandemic began, with March seeing the second-highest number since 2011-12.

The Patients Association said mixed-sex wards are "an affront to patients' dignity", claiming the stress they cause prohibits a strong recovery.

NHS England data shows a rule preventing different sexes from mixing on wards at the Bolton Trust was broken 113 times in the six months to March – up from 71 in the same period the year before.

In the six months to March 2019 before the pandemic, there were 73 breaches.

At the trust, the single-sex ward rule was broken 25 times in March alone.

Given an estimated number of finished consultant episodes of 8,125 in the month, it meant the trust had a breach rate of approximately 3.1 per 1,000 treatments – up from 2.4 per 1,000 in March 2019.

Tyrone Roberts, chief nursing officer at the trust, said: “These incidents typically occurred during surges of Covid-19 and flu, and it was our priority to ensure patients received the right care as soon as possible.

“This meant on some occasions a patient may have unfortunately been located next to a patient of the opposite sex as we worked hard to manage pressures and capacity, whilst continuing to optimise our infection prevention controls.

“During these challenging periods we took extra steps to protect patient dignity and privacy.

"This included keeping bathing and toilet facilities separate, doing all we could to limit the amount of time patients were placed in mixed bed areas, and reviewing patient feedback and liaising with patients throughout their stay.

“Since May 2023, we have worked with teams across the trust to help us return to pre-Covid zero tolerance of mixing different sexes on wards.”

Nationally, there were almost 4,500 instances where mixed-sex rules were broken in March – the second-highest single month since 2011-12 and more than triple the 1,446 instances recorded in March 2019.

Recording breaches was suspended from March 2020 to September 2021 due to the pandemic, but when logging rule-breaking returned, there were 2,289 occurrences, while every month since this past December has topped 4,000.

Chief executive of the Patients Association, Rachel Power, said: "Mixed sex wards are an affront to patients' dignity.

"No patient wants to receive intimate, personal care on a mixed sex ward, and it's the sort of stress that doesn't promote recovery."

An NHS spokesperson said: "Offering single-sex accommodation is a requirement under the NHS Standard Contract.

"Trusts across the country are taking action to reduce or eliminate unjustified breaches, which remain rare."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We have been clear patients should not have to share sleeping accommodation with others of the opposite sex and should have access to segregated bathroom and toilet facilities, and we expect NHS trusts to comply with these measures."

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