Patients on mixed-sex wards trebles as crisis-hit hospitals run out of beds

THE number of patients being forced on to mixed-sex wards has almost tripled as crisis-hit hospitals run out of beds.

Figures revealed that more than 7,100 had to share rooms with the opposite sex last year — up from 2,585 in 2014.

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Ministers vowed to end the practice in 2010 following widespread public outcry.

Officials introduced hospital fines of £250 a day for each patient put in an area reserved for the opposite sex.

But after initial success, the numbers forced into mixed-sex wards are rising.

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NHS England figures showed that there were 739 breaches in December, up from 339 in the same month in 2015.

Many patients find having to share wards embarrassing. And research has shown they are at greater risk of attack.

Critics say stretched hospitals are putting patients wherever a bed is free.

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Figures showed 95.2 per cent of beds were occupied last week.

Guidelines suggest an 85 per cent limit.

Patient Concern’s Joyce Robins called the mixed ward figures a “scandal”.

She said: “For many it is undignified and unpleasant.”

Dr Jacqueline McKenna, of the overseeing body NHS Improvement, blamed “busy” hospitals and said the priority was “the need to treat”.