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Our Quality and Safety Standards
At Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, the quality and safety of your care are our highest priorities. There are national and local standards, policies and procedures to ensure you have the best possible outcomes and experience.
We adhere to the NHS Constitution for our standards and waiting times. We are inspected and regulated by national organisations who ensure we provide services to expected levels and meet our commitments within the National Health Service. We also take very seriously the feedback we get from patients and visitors and respond to concerns when they arise.
Single Sex Accommodation
2015/16 Declaration of Compliance
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health & Care NHS Trust is committed to ensuring that all patients receiving our services receive high quality care and have their privacy and dignity respected at all times. Provision of same sex accommodation helps safeguard privacy and dignity for patients at a time when they are often at their most vulnerable.
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health & Care NHS Trust is pleased to confirm that we are compliant with the Government's requirement to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation, except when it is in the patient's overall best interest, is clinically justifiable and reflects their personal choice.
We have the necessary facilities, resources and culture to ensure that patients who are admitted to our hospitals and in-patients units will only share the room where they sleep with members of the same sex, and that same-sex toilets and bathrooms will be close to their bed area. Sharing with members of the opposite sex may happen very rarely if clinically necessary (such as patients needing specialist equipment e.g. in day-case units, or when patients actively choose to share, for instance in circumstances where partners wish to share a 2 bedded room).
Single Sex Accommodation Policy: Single sex Accommodation Policy [docx] 55KB
This Year
The Trust has an ongoing maintenance programme in place which aims to promote privacy & dignity and continuously improve the environment in which we care for our patients. Any planned programmes of work to our facilities is monitored to ensure continued compliance with same sex accommodation.
How we measure and monitor success
We will continue to monitor patient satisfaction in respect of privacy and dignity through our annual Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) and our patient surveys. We also welcome comments from patients and relatives which can be made directly to our Hospital Matrons and in-patient managers. We also have in place a system to closely monitor on a monthly basis the continued compliance with same sex accommodation and if this should fall short of the required standard, we will report it. Results are published on our website.
What to do if you have any concerns or questions
If you think you or someone you know is in mixed sex accommodation or if you have any concerns or comments to make, please contact our Patients Relations Team:
Patient Relations
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust
2 Kings Courts
Charles Hastings Way,
Worcester, WR5 1JR
Tel: 01905 681517
Fax: 01905 681643
Email: PALS@hacw.nhs.uk