Yeovil Hospital aims to provide high quality patient care and constantly strives to improve its standards.
Key to this is our philosophy of iCARE, which promises good clear communication, a positive attitude, respect for patients, carers and staff and an environment which is clean, safe and welcoming to patients.
Your time in hospital
We aim to do everything we can to make you as comfortable as possible. We want you to have a good experience of being in hospital. Privacy, dignity and respect The NHS Constitution makes clear that all patients have a right to privacy and to be treated with dignity and respect. We believe that providing same sex accommodation is integral to this. What is same sex accommodation? For a hospital to say that it provides same sex accommodation, it must have separate sleeping areas and toilet and washing facilities for men and women. At Yeovil Hospital this means that:
- you will either be in a same sex ward, or a same sex room,
or - in a mixed ward, where men and women are in separate bays or rooms.
- toilet and washing facilities are easy to get to and you do not have to go through accommodation used by the opposite sex to get to your own.
Why is same sex accommodation considered important?
Patients tell us that being in same sex accommodation makes a big difference to how comfortable and relaxed they feel whilst they’re in hospital.
Having to share accommodation with members of the opposite sex can threaten people’s privacy and dignity at a time when they may already be feeling vulnerable.
Some patients also have cultural or religious reasons for not wanting to share accommodation with members of the opposite sex.
Will there be times when same sex accommodation is not possible?
For routine, planned admissions, patients can expect to stay in same sex accommodation. However, sometimes the need for fast, effective treatment is greater than the need to provide same sex accommodation.
For example:
- If you are admitted as an emergency case from our A&E department into our Medical Assessment Unit (MAU), or Clinical Decisions Unit (CDU) you may be placed in a bay of males and females. This is because your condition warrants further immediate investigation and we cannot always wait for a bed in a same sex bay to become available.
- If you need urgent, highly specialised or hi-tech care for example in the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) or Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
- If bed availability is compromised because of high numbers of emergency admissions
In these situations, staff will be expected to keep you informed and move you into same sex accommodation as quickly as possible, and will do everything they can to ensure your privacy and dignity.
What is Yeovil Hospital doing about eliminating mixed sex accommodation?
We have worked hard to comply with Department of Health standards in ensuring the hospital has same sex accommodation.
We have invested in a number of improvements to the environment, such as partition walls in the Day Surgery Unit and improvements to the ward bathrooms and toilets.
We will continue to report all breaches of same sex accommodation as required by our commissioners.
Find out more
If you have any questions or would like further information please talk to the matron or sister in charge of the ward/unit, they will be happy to help you, or you can ask to speak to our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).
To find out more about Yeovil Hospital’s commitment to our patients’ privacy and dignity and providing same sex accommodation please visit the Trust website at: yeovilhospital.nhs.uk and NHS Choices: nhs.uk/samesexaccommodation
For equality and diversity concerns please contact:
E&D Lead: 01935 384476
E&D Support: 01935 384529
Email: E&D@ydh.nhs.uk
