Patients will be able to request same sex wards under strengthened NHS guidance

Patients will be able to request same sex wards and staff under the government’s new proposed requirements, as leaders warn the NHS should not be “dragged into a pre-election culture wars debate.”

Proposals by the government to update the NHS Constitution will also include a nod to the new “Martha’s rule” allowing families a second opinion on their loved ones needing critical care admission.

The Department for Health and Social Care, which is making the proposals, also intends to “strengthen” requirements for patients to cancel appointments they cannot attend.

The proposals come after The Independent revealed on Sunday the NHS has seen almost record highs of patients being placed on wards with the opposite gender overnight. A total of 44,000 breaches were recorded in a single year.

Healthcare leaders warned current pressures on the NHS mean mixed care has become the “new normal.”

Health and Social Care Secretary, Victoria Atkins said: “We want to make it abundantly clear that if a patient wants same-sex care they should have access to it wherever reasonably possible.

“We have always been clear that sex matters and our services should respect that.”

The current NHS constitution already pledges that no patients should have an overnight bed on a ward with patients of the opposite sex.

The new proposed guidance will add: “if you are admitted to hospital, you will not have to share sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite biological sex, except where appropriate. The Equality Act 2010 allows for the provision of single-sex or separate-sex services.”

It also allows for transgender patients “with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment to be provided a different service - for example, a single room in a hospital - if it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.”

The Department for Health and Social Care’s proposal will also include patients’ and families’ rights to ask for a rapid review in relation to loved ones needing critical care under the implementation of Matha’s rule.

NHS England launched a call for hospitals to sign up to a pilot of this from April this year.

The government had promised to introduce the new rule last year following a campaign by the parents of 13-year-old Martha Mills, who died from sepsis in 2021 after staff at King’s College Hospital failed to move her to intensive care despite her family warning them her condition had deteriorated.

Responding to the proposals, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS trusts, said the service must not be “not dragged into a pre-election culture wars debate.”

It said health leaders and staff work hard to show fairness and compassion towards all patients regardless of characteristics.

“In particular, groups of people, including trans and non-binary patients, continue to receive some of the worst health outcomes of any group in our society and NHS leaders and staff will want to do all they can to support these patients, as well as their trans and non-binary staff to reduce inequalities.

“The opportunity to update the NHS Constitution should not be about grabbing headlines, but to strive to reach a consensus around upholding these core values and closing the gap between the waiting time standards it mandates and where performance levels are currently. This should include facing up to the reality that the government has overseen an NHS budget that has not kept pace with demand and demographic changes.”

Under the current guidance on mixed-sex ward breaches, no mental health units should have mixed wards. However, earlier this year, The Independent revealed the practice is widespread, with more than 500 sexual assaults reported in mixed wards or mixed communal areas across almost half of the NHS mental health hospitals in England.

Patients, NHS staff and organisations will be able to respond to a public consultation on the constitution updates.

Wes Streeting, Shadow Health Secretary, responding to changes to the NHS Constitution proposed by the Government, said: “Rights on paper are worthless unless they are delivered in practice. The NHS constitution already pledges that no patient will have to share an overnight ward with patients of the opposite sex, but that is not the case for too many patients.

“The use of mixed sex wards has exploded under the Tories. Women were forced to spend the night on wards alongside male patients 44,000 times last year, twenty times as many as a decade ago, putting huge numbers of people’s safety at risk.

“The Conservatives cuts to hospital beds and failure to train enough staff has left the health service unable to protect patients’ basic dignity.”