Cooties - the New Hospital Superbug

[steepholm]

I must admit I'm a bit baffled by this story, which was the lead on the news this morning. I mean, is this really the thing that people are most concerned about with the NHS? I suppose I can see that a lot of people would rather not have mixed-sex wards (I imagine a lot of them would rather have a room to themselves, in an ideal world), but separate toilets and bathrooms? Since when was that a big issue? It's not as if people are asked to stand next to each other in a communal shower, after all.

Am I missing something? The politicians and their interviewers all seem to be taking it for granted that it's a major disgrace this wasn't done years ago, rather than questioning whether it's as burning an issue as hygiene, queues, unavailable drugs, etc.

Either way, mixed-sex wards are due to be phased out by the end of the year. I wonder how long it will be before the papers report on the first person to die after being turned away from hospital despite beds being available, just because they were the wrong sex? My guess is January 2011.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's a good question! As far as I can see, the only exceptions they're allowing are A&E and intensive care, where the justifications is presumably ones of practicality and expense respectively, but not clinical in either case.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Weird, isn't it?

I read the case study the BBC story linked to, which was all about how awful it was having a man walk round with no trousers on and come & sit on your bed & say aggressively I'll sit where I like, which is indeed awful, but I couldn't really see why it was worse than having a woman behave inappropriately and aggressively on your ward. But then I realized: this isn't about mixed-sex or same-sex space, it's about the uncontrollability of male violence.* Which, it seems to me, is a problem better solved by holding men accountable for their actions and not condoning/promoting male aggression than by rigging up vote-winning strategies which rely on an assumption that only gender-conforming cis people are entitled to 'dignity' (or indeed medical treatment).

So, in short, in the end I got quite angry about this.

*At least, I haven't seen any arguments from men saying they're scared or uncomfortable when women are around, and I'm leaving the modesty stuff to one side for the moment.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I think you could certainly say it was clinical in terms of intensive care. The ICU staff have special training and skills, so doubling up such wards is wasteful not only in terms of equipment but also in staffing. But sex of the patient is not so relevant because if a patient is in an ICU, they are likely to be unconscious or deeply sedated and certainly will not be capable of wandering around. ICUs are staffed 24 hours a day, as are A&E units.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

The ICU staff have special training and skills, so doubling up such wards is wasteful not only in terms of equipment but also in staffing.

Yes, but that's a (perfectly reasonable) argument about resources rather than clinical need.