NEW measures being implemented at the Great Western Hospital (GWH)will mean fewer fines in the future.

From the beginning of this month, the Government announced that hospital trusts would be fined £250 for each patient who had to share a ward with a person of the opposite sex.

But the latest Department of Health figures reveal that in February, GWH had just 26 breaches where male and female patients found themselves on the same ward as one another, compared to 859 cases at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust.

If GWH reports a similar number of breaches for April, the Trust could be faced with a fine of almost £6,500.

And if the situation were to continue for the rest of the year, the Trust would be landed with a bill for approximately £58,500.

But in line with the NHS constitution, the hospital is aiming to give all patients the respect and privacy they deserve, with nearly all patients benefiting from same-sex accommodation.

However, staff are keen to stress that urgent treatment would never be delayed if same-sex accommodation is not available, and in these cases patients will be moved to an appropriate area when well enough.

Sue Rowley, director of nursing and midwifery, said: “The latest figures published by the Department of Health show that the number of breaches we have reported have been falling month on month since Hospital Trusts were first required to report these figures at the end of last year.

“We have virtually eliminated Mixed Sex Accommodation across the hospital as evidenced by the fact there was not a single breach last month in any of the main wards.

“The 26 breaches in February relate to one area of the hospital which is the Acute Assessment Unit (AAU), which is for patients who are acutely unwell and require close monitoring, and represent a small number of the thousands of patients we treated during that month.

“On occasion, treating patients in a same sex area may not be immediately possible and it is important for anyone who may need to come into hospital that they are assured we would never turn them away for treatment just because we could not put them in a bay with people of the same sex.

“In the coming weeks and months we will be promoting to patients and visitors what same-sex accommodation is and what they can expect when they come into hospital.

“Whilst eliminating Mixed Sex Accommodation is important, there are a range of other areas we look at to enhance patients’ privacy and dignity such as putting in place processes to protect patients’ modesty, improving communication between hospital staff, patients and their carers and above all seeking to treat each person under our care as individuals.”

Compared to other hospitals in the south-west, Taunton and Somerset Foundation Trust reported 117 breaches while South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust had 54 breaches.

Nationally, there were 7,583 breaches of the mixed-sex rules in February.