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.
We believe that providing same sex accommodation is integral to this. Patients tell us that being in same sex accommodation makes a big difference to how comfortable and relaxed they feel while 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.
For a hospital to say that it provides same sex accommodation, it must have:
- Single-sex wards (ie. whole ward occupied by either men or women, not both)
- Single rooms with adjacent single sex toilet and washing facilities
- Single-sex accommodation within mixed wards (ie. bays or rooms that accommodate either men or women, not both, with designated single sex toilet and washing facilities, preferably within, or adjacent to, the bay or room.
However, in Day Theatre/Endoscopy:
- You will be nursed in a male or female end which is separated by a screen.
- In order to access toilet and washing facilities you are not required to pass through accommodation used by the opposite sex but are signposted around these areas.
Will there be times when same sex accommodation is not possible?
For routine, planned admissions, patients can expect to stay in same sex accommodation.
There may be situations when the need to provide highly specialised care takes priority over segregation to ensure you are in the safest clinical environment for your care, for instance if you are admitted as an emergency case and your condition requires further investigation.
We will make every effort to transfer you to same sex accommodation when it is safe to do so. In these situations, staff will be expected to keep you informed.
What is the Yeovil Hospital doing about same 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, and improvements to the ward bathrooms and toilets.
We will continue to report all breaches of same sex accommodation as required by our commissioners.
Our pledge
We are committed to maintaining your privacy and dignity.
Should you at any time have any concerns or we can do anything to make your stay more comfortable, please do not hesitate to talk to the matron or sister, or our Patient Liaison Service (PALS), located to the side of the hospital’s main reception area.
For equality and diversity concerns please contact:
E&D Lead: 01935 384 476
E&D Support: 01935 384 529
Email: E&D@ydh.nhs.uk
