Vol. 503 No. 5
60 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on the increasing practice in public hospitals of having mixed male and female wards; his views on whether this is appropriate, having regard to the need of patients for privacy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10464/99]
My Department does not routinely collect information on gender mixing in acute hospital wards. Gender mixing occurs in high dependency units such as intensive care, coronary care and accident and emergency departments as well as in small geriatric assessment units. Outside of these areas, gender mixing may occur as a result of emergency medical need where no alternative accommo dation can be found at the time of admission. It is not possible to re-organise the accommodation arrangements for male and female patients on a day-to-day basis to correspond with the varied demand for male and female beds. Some flexibility is therefore required occasionally in order to ensure that patients who need to be admitted can be. In such circumstances patients are usually only mixed for short periods until alternative accommodation can be found. On such occasions it would be normal practice that patients would be screened off by the use of curtains etc. to ensure that a degree of privacy can be maintained.
