Labour's hospital ward 'U-turn'

Patients groups have reacted angrily after a minister said the provision of single sex wards in hospitals was not practical.

Health minister Lord Darzi of Denham appeared to do a U-turn on Labour's 1997 manifesto promise to "work towards the elimination of mixed-sex wards".

He told peers that the Government was committed to providing single sex accommodation in hospitals, but not single sex wards.

"Our guidance requires the provision of single sex accommodation, not wards," he said.

"This may mean single rooms or single sex bays within a mixed ward as well as single sex wards."

The Patients Association accused the Government of "throwing in the towel" on their manifesto pledge.

Spokeswoman Katherine Murphy said: "The Government has taken a U-turn on their promise to eliminate mixed sex wards.

"Ten years ago patients were told it would be possible, and it was a manifesto commitment.

"Now the ground rules may be changing but the problem is still there for patients of all ages who ask for nothing more than a safe NHS where 'dignity and respect is at the heart' - to quote Lord Darzi himself.

"Patients have no guarantee ten years on that anyone will do anything to achieve this. This is throwing in the towel.

"If the NHS couldn't stick to the earlier commitment, why should patients believe anything will change with these new words?"

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