Scores of NHS hospitals across England are failing to protect the dignity of patients and meet basic standards of cleanliness and care, the government's health watchdog warned today in its annual check of conditions on the wards.
The Healthcare Commission found that 30% of inpatients were having to share bathrooms or shower areas with the opposite sex, despite government guidance noting that the practice is upsetting, particularly to women.
The commission identified a handful of trusts where most patients had to wash in mixed-sex areas, facilities which ministers claimed to have eradicated. At St Mary's teaching hospital, London, 59% of patients shared mixed-sex bathrooms.
The survey of the experience of 80,000 inpatients found that 20% of people who could not eat without assistance said they did not get enough help. This level rose to 42% at Queen Mary's hospital, Sidcup.
The report found 30 trusts where at least 20% of patients described the quality of meals as poor, rising to 32% at Queen Mary's, and at the North Middlesex hospital in Edmonton, London. Across England, 15% of inpatients said it took staff at least five minutes to respond to an emergency call, rising to 39% at Queen Mary's. Kate Grimes, its chief executive, said: "We are very disappointed in these results, as patient care and patient experience in hospital is our highest priority. The survey was undertaken during our most difficult time last year." The trust was having to look at making redundancies and this had hit staff morale and patient care. "I am very sorry," she said, adding that standards had now improved.
Generally, the commission praised the NHS for achieving persistently high levels of patient satisfaction. The survey, conducted last autumn, found 90% rated the overall standard of care as excellent or good, with 2% saying it was poor.
But after looking at the details of patients' experiences, it found that many hospitals had failed "to get the basics right".
Anna Walker, the commission's chief executive, said: "We need a fresh drive to tackle a set of issues related to treating patients with dignity ... It seems as if there are a minority of trusts that are letting the rest down." Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, admitted last week that thousands of NHS patients were being caused "great distress" by the failure to honour a 1997 manifesto commitment to eliminate mixed-sex wards in England.
Pre-empting the commission's report, she published proposals from Christine Beasley, the chief nursing officer, to help trusts deal with the problem.
Andrew Lansley, shadow health secretary, said last night: "Across the country over a million patients are still being placed in mixed-sex wards every year, and no amount of Labour spin can hide this."
