A RULE preventing patients of different sexes from being treated on the same ward was broken more than 150 times at The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust over a six-month period, new figures reveal.

NHS England data shows a rule preventing different sexes from mixing on wards at the Dudley Trust was broken 162 times in the six months to March – up from 108 in the same period the year before.

In the six months to March 2019 before the pandemic, there were just 48 breaches.

Recording breaches was suspended due to the pandemic from March 2020 to September 2021 but it has since been re-introduced.

Figures show that nationally there were almost 4,500 instances where mixed-sex rules were broken in March this year – more than triple the 1,446 instances recorded in March 2019.

Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "Mixed sex wards are an affront to patients' dignity.

"No patient wants to receive intimate, personal care on a mixed sex ward, and it's the sort of stress that doesn't promote recovery."

At The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, the single-sex ward rule was broken 24 times in March.

Given an estimated number of finished consultant episodes of 9,715 in the month, it meant the trust had a breach rate of approximately 2.5 per 1,000 treatments – up from 0.6 per 1,000 in March 2019.

An NHS spokesperson said: "Offering single-sex accommodation is a requirement under the NHS Standard Contract.

"Trusts across the country are taking action to reduce or eliminate unjustified breaches, which remain rare."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We have been clear patients should not have to share sleeping accommodation with others of the opposite sex and should have access to segregated bathroom and toilet facilities, and we expect NHS trusts to comply with these measures."

Diane Wake, chief executive at the Dudey Group, said of the breaches: “The acuity of the patients’ condition dictates where they should be placed to receive the care they require.

"Whilst every care is taken to achieve single sex accommodation, there are times and occasions where this is not possible and the patients require care in an area with other sexes.

“This is something which we monitor daily and readdress the balance at the earliest opportunity available. We have already begun to see an improvement in the figures during April and May.”