MORE than £1.83m is to be spent at a hospital unit over concerns cancer patients’ consultations can be heard through curtains.

Hospital bosses this week approved the spending for the Churchill Hospital day surgery unit, where 85 per cent of its surgery patients pass through.

They warned the current set-up of 17 bays with curtains risks not meeting guidelines about mixed-sex accommodation and could see funding cut. The Headington unit is for people who are to have an operation on the same day they attend the hospital, and saw 9,530 people last year.

A report to hospital leaders said: “As a result of the confined spaces, which are just curtained off, conversations can become very loud and discussion of intimate surgical procedures, for example breast reconstruction, overhead in neighbouring bays.

“This situation has resulted in patient complaints to the unit and concerns raised by clinicians over patient confidentiality.”

One patient told a consultation on the plans: “There’s nothing worse than one hearing someone else’s private appointments.”

The report, led by director of clinical services Paul Brennan, warned failing to meet same-sex criteria represented a “significant financial risk to the trust” as funding could be cut. Senior managers had noted the “poor patient environment” during two walk-arounds and consultants had made “repeated” concerns.

The redevelopment will provide pre-operative consulting rooms for assessments or be used for outpatient appointments. Work would be carried out in stages so the unit can remain open with work completed by next December.

The board of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (OUHT), which runs the hospital, approved the cash at a meeting on Wednesday .

The board hopes the trust’s charitable funds will give £400,000 to £500,000 towards the project.

Kidlington’s Daphne Norridge, 51, who had a partial mastectomy in March 2010, said she had a single-sex bay at the hospital’s Jane Ashley Women’s Centre when she had surgery with an overnight stay. She said: “I think it is important for a lot of people.”

Healthwatch chief executive Rachel Coney said: “Healthwatch Oxfordshire is pleased to hear that OUHT plans to address patients’ concerns about privacy and dignity issues.”

The development will replace 17 curtained bays with two four-bed bays, two two-bed bays and two single rooms. It will include six consulting rooms and six toilets instead of the present two.

SAME SEX ACCOMMODATION

OFFICIAL NHS guidance says health authorities “are expected to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation’’.
This is “except where it is in the overall best interest of the patient or reflects their personal choice”.
Hospitals can be fined up to £250 for breaching guidance and the NHS says “breaches have fallen significantly”.
The hospitals trust said it provides same-sex accommodation “where it is clinically safe and appropriate to do so”.
It said: “If the only bed available is in a mixed-sex area we will explain this to you and move you to a same-sex area as soon as possible.”