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no female toilets in the children's hospital in Glasgow

Posted By Glasgow Children's Hospital user

"no female toilets in the children's hospital in Glasgow"

About: Royal Hospital for Children (Glasgow)

(as a parent/guardian),

My young daughter was attending an appointment at Queen Elizabeth Children's Hospital in Glasgow (May 2023). We were both appalled to be told that there are no female toilets and all have been designated as mixed sex. This poses a very serious safeguarding risk to all the children attending the hospital. It also meant that every cubicle either had urine over the toilet seat or the toilet seat was left up and we had use our hands to pull down. This is unacceptable. It also breaches the single sex legislation which is a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act.

Given this is a children's hospital the decision to remove all female toilets is even more confounding. This could be very easily remedied by designating some of the cubicles female, some male and some mixed. Please can this change be made to ensure that girls and women attending the hospital have the dignity of a clean and safe toilet.

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Responses

Response from Nicole McInally, Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 2 years ago
Nicole McInally
Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Submitted on 06/06/2023 at 12:01
Published on Care Opinion at 12:01

picture of Nicole McInally

Dear Glasgow Children's Hospital User

Thank you for sharing your feedback about your daughter’s visit to the Royal Hospital for Children.

I understand that you have also been in touch with our Complaints Team.

My colleagues have confirmed that the toilet is not designated for a specific sex and is instead a generic toilet facility.These toilets are single rooms with a toilet, wash basin and lockable door independently accessed from a main corridor rather than multiple toilet cubicles contained within a ‘mixed sex’ shared space. Given this, there is not seen to be a risk of breaching our Public Sector Equality Duty in terms of provision of goods and services on the grounds of the protected characteristic of sex. This isn’t a mixed sex space, but rather a room that can be either used by males or females. As such, it affords appropriate levels of dignity and privacy and segregation on the grounds of sex at the discretion of the user e.g. a male or female carer may feel more comfortable toileting a female/male child in this facility. As these are lockable rooms open directly onto main corridors there are no identified safeguarding issues referred to. We can confirm there are also separate accessible toilets and changing facilities available.

The facilities team were sorry to hear about the cleanliness of the toilets. The toilets in this area receive a full clean during the night when the clinic is closed, and regular check throughout the day to address and monitor cleanliness standards and provide any additional cleaning or topping up of supplies which are required when the clinic is in operation. The Domestic Supervisor who is responsible for this area completes regular checks and works closely with nursing colleagues to address any issues or concerns that are identified. The Domestic Manager apologises that the cleanliness of the toilet facilities were not of the required standard at the time of your visit and has provided assurance of his ongoing commitment to ensuring that standards of cleanliness are maintained.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Kind Regards

Nicole

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