Norfolk Community Health and Care declaration on Delivering Same Sex Accommodation

Declaration of Compliance

Norfolk Community Health & Care are proud to confirm that mixed sex accommodation has been virtually eliminated in all our community hospitals. At the beginning of 2009 we started a programme of work in response to the Department of Health commitment to eradicate mixed sex accommodation by launching its ”Same Sex Accommodation: Your Privacy, Our Responsibility” initiative in January 2009.

Since this launch we have been committed to delivering on this agenda and embedding the privacy and dignity philosophy into day to day practice for patients admitted to Norfolk Community Health & Care Community Hospitals.
This has included the designation of male and female bathrooms and toilets, development and delivery of staff training packages on Privacy and Dignity/Single Sex Accommodation requirements, the review of hospital issue night wear, introduction of patient surveys on privacy and dignity issues, development of site management plans.

Patients admitted to Norfolk Community Health & Care Community Hospitals can expect to find the following in relation to same sex accommodation:

The room where their bed is will only have patients of the same sex.
Your toilet and bathroom will be just for one gender, and will be near to the bed area.
There will be both men and women patients on the ward, but they will not share your sleeping area. Men and women may have to cross a ward corridor to reach their bathroom, but they will not have to walk through opposite-sex bedded areas.
Men and women may share some communal space, such as day rooms or dining rooms, and it is very likely that they will see both men and women patients as they move around the ward/hospital.

It is probable that visitors of the opposite gender will come into the room where their bed is, and this may include patients visiting each other.

It is almost certain that both male and female nurses, doctors and other staff will come into their bed area.

If individuals need help to use the toilet or take a bath (e.g. you need a hoist or special bath) then they may be taken to an assisted bathroom used by both men and women, but a member of staff will be with them, and other patients will not be in the bathroom at the same time.