"Might mixed wards brighten the hospital day?"

Dear annieT Thank you for taking the time to place your comments about mixed wards at local hospitals on the Patient Opinion website. This is a very interesting concept and we have passed your thoughts on to Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and to our own Commissioning Department for their consideration. Once we have received a response, we will post a full response to your comments on this website, hopefully within the next week or two. NHS Hull is the organisation responsible for deciding how money is spent on local health services [also known as commissioning], ensuring those services are of high quality and meet local needs. We value all feedback and if you would like to discuss this further please do not hesitate to contact our Patient Advice & Liaison Service on 01482 335409 or by email. Thank you once again for taking the time to provide us with your views on our services.

Dear annieT Further to our acknowledgement of your posting on this website, we are responding to your comments as the organisation which commissions (funds) local health services. Privacy and dignity of patients is very important within the health service and is driving a number of changes to the way care is delivered to patients. Both national policy and the current Secretary of State support the move towards same sex accommodation for patients, and the regional Strategic Health Authority, NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, has been given over £10 million to support this work. It is NHS Hull’s responsibility to ensure that same sex accommodation is available locally. National policy states that patients are expected to have single sex bathrooms and not to share accommodation with members of the opposite sex. This does not and should not prevent patients from mixing with fellow patients in other areas of the care environment, however it does allow privacy and dignity in many personal matters and at the point of care. Our colleagues at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust have taken your comments to their appropriate director and as soon as we have their response, we will ensure it is posted on this website. If you would like to become more involved in decisions about local healthcare, all local health Trusts are recruiting ‘members’. Members receive information about their local health services, along with health advice and regular invitations to get involved with service developments and decision making. You don’t need any special skills or experience to become a member, you just need an interest in local health services – you can commit as much or as little time as you like. For more information please email or telephone 01482 675165.