PATIENTS have been promised they will share fewer wards and facilities with members of the opposite sex after Oxfordshire’s hospitals were given £1.2m.

The Department of Health has allocated Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust £1,010,300, Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust £134,550 and Oxford Learning Disability Trust £116,650 “to improve patients’ privacy and dignity”.

The PCT said its slice of the cash would pay for new bathing and toilet facilities at its community hospitals in Bicester, Abingdon and Didcot.

Spokesman Jo Wilkes said: “None of our hospitals have mixed-sex wards for sleeping and the majority offer entirely separate washing and toilet facilities.

“This funding allocation will be sufficient to deliver separate washing and toilet facilities across all our sites.”

PCT service manager Jonathan Coombes added: “People often feel at their most vulnerable when they are in hospital and being cared for in mixed-sex accommodation can be deeply distressing.”

Work is anticipated to be completed by the end of July.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said its allocation would pay for more toilets and showers and better segregation screening at the John Radcliffe, Churchill and Horton hospitals.

ORH spokesman Laura Carpenter said: “The important principles which guide us are that patients’ dignity and privacy are protected through suitable screening, use of single-sex bays and separate washing and toilet facilities where appropriate.

“The money will help us deliver our aim of improving privacy for patients.”

Elaine Strachan-Hall, director of nursing and clinical leadership, added: “We know from listening to patients they have concerns about being cared for close to patients of the opposite gender and using unisex washing and toilet facilities, so we are pleased we will be able to increase the number of toilets and bathrooms.”

In February, hospitals were warned they faced fines if they continued to treat patients in mixed-sex wards.

The threat from Health Secretary Alan Johnson formed part of a tough package of measures aimed at eliminating mixed-sex accommodation in the NHS.

Mr Johnson said: “From 2010/11 hospitals that fail in their duty to protect patients’ privacy by allowing mixed-sex accommodation where it is not clinically necessary will be financially penalised.

“We will not pay for care that has taken place in mixed-sex accommodation unless it can be clinically justified. It is not unreasonable in the 21st century for patients to expect to be treated in single-sex accommodation.”

Exemptions include intensive care and emergency units.

tshepherd@oxfordmail.co.uk