The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, admitted yesterday that thousands of NHS patients were being caused "great distress" by the government's failure to honour its 1997 manifesto commitment to eliminate mixed-sex wards in England.
An investigation by the health service's chief nurse found more than 16% of NHS acute hospital trusts were still struggling to provide single-sex accommodation.
The finding - disclosed in a report yesterday from the Department of Health - appeared to contradict ministerial statements to parliament in January 2003 assuring MPs that 95% of trusts had met the target. Last year Ms Hewitt said 99% of trusts provided single-sex accommodation in general wards, including single-sex bathrooms and toilets.
A health department spokesman said these assurances were based on a misunderstanding, in some trusts, of the definition of single-sex accommodation. Fresh guidelines made it clear that segregation could not be achieved by the erection of flimsy curtains between bays, but required a permanent structural change.
Ms Hewitt asked Christine Beasley, the chief nursing officer, to investigate the facts after a series of complaints last year from the relatives of women in mixed-sex wards whose dignity was compromised by male patients wandering around in a state of undress.
Ms Beasley identified 28 trusts which are finding the target of eliminating mixed-sex accommodation "challenging".
They are all "receiving support" from strategic health authorities to make the necessary improvements. The 28 included the University Hospitals of Leicester, serving Ms Hewitt's parliamentary constituency.
The report did not cover mental health trusts which were criticised by the Healthcare Commission in March for doing too little to segregate the sexes. It found 55% of mental health inpatients had to share sleeping accommodation or bathrooms with members of the opposite sex.
Last year ministers rejected a report from the National Patient Safety Agency that recorded at least 19 alleged rapes and more than 100 other improper sexual incidents in psychiatric units in the previous two years.
Ms Beasley said it was unrealistic to commit the NHS to eliminating mixed-sex wards. The goal was impossible to achieve in departments such as intensive care units where medical priorities were paramount, she said.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, accused the government of suppressing the information in yesterday's report for months, despite a Freedom of Information Act application. "Despite government pledges on mixed-sex wards ... Labour have failed to help and listen to patients and NHS staff," he added.
Sandra Gidley, the Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman, said: "It is a damning legacy that [Tony Blair's] premiership has still not dealt with the problem."
