MIXED-sex facilities in local hospitals have been shut in a bid to improve patients’ privacy and dignity.

Bosses at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said that patients would not have to share facilities with anyone of the opposite sex, even for a day case procedure.

Hospital chiefs at the trust, which manages Royal Blackburn Hospital, Burnley General Hospital and Pendle Community Hospitals, said that mixed-sex accommodation had been virtually eliminated.

This means that patients sleep in same-sex bays on wards, as well as using same-sex toilet, bathroom and changing facilities all the way through their time in hospital.

The only exceptions are in cases where the need for high-level treatment is overriding, such as in intensive care.

The trust has spent more than £500,000 from the government’s ‘privacy and dignity fund’ over the last nine months, building walls, extra toilets and new changing areas. Almost all inpatient wards were already segregated, and had been for some time, but in areas like day-case surgery and endoscopy, major alterations had to be made.

Same-sex facilities are also being built at the new Rossendale Primary Health Centre, which will also house an endoscopy department.

Catherine Marshall, sister in Burnley General Hospital’s Endoscopy unit, said: “It was a bit of an upheaval, but the way things are now is so much better for everyone. Endoscopy is often a difficult and worrying procedure for patients, and being able to go that little bit further to make sure their dignity is respected really does help to reassure them.”

In the Royal Blackburn Hospital, the improvement work has also included new linen cupboards, motion-sensitive lights and a new nurses’ station.

Jane Grassham, operational manager for endoscopy, said: “The area is now much more comfortable for our patients, so it’s definitely worth the effort, even though things were a little bit chaotic while the builders were in.”