THE controversial mixed sex wards at Hereford County Hospital have been abolished.

Men and women, most of them elderly, are now being nursed in single sex wards.

The Government gave an April 1 deadline for 90 per cent of mixed sex wards in the country to be closed down.

Jeremy Millar, chief executive of Hereford Hospitals Trust confirmed the figure was 100 per cent at the County and it had been achieved well before the target date.

People in Herefordshire were incensed when they realised that mixed sex wards were still operating when the new hospital opened last year, even though they were in the hutted wards.

Many hundreds protested and The Hereford Times was inundated with letters, phone calls, emails and faxes, mainly from families with elderly patients in mixed sex wards.

They talked about the indignity of the situation, lack of privacy and the distress it often caused.

The hospital management agreed to try and resolve the situation and bring the practice to an end.

Now Wye ward in the new hospital has been designated a rehabilitation ward and by using the four- bedded bays men and women are separated.

The hutted wards Monnow and Leadon are now single sex wards.

In some circumstances, such as in the admission area and in critical care men and women will at times be nursed together.

Campaign countdown

1997

LABOUR Party manifesto pledges: "We will work towards the elimination of mixed sex wards."

1999

DEPARTMENT of Health pledges £40million towards ending mixed sex accommodation.

2001

House of Commons hears the Government policy is mixed sex wards should be eliminated by 2002.

May, 2002

HEREFORDSHIRE Community Health Council brands a planned move of 22 men and women into Monnow Ward as unacceptable. The patents were being transferred from the Age Care Unit at the General Hospital into the new County Hospital.

June, 2002

READERS write, phone and email The Hereford Times

expressing their shock and anger at the continuation of what is described as an outrage to dignity.The paper launches its campaign.

June to March 2003

MORE letters and calls pour into the paper and are sent on to the relevant bodies as The Hereford Times continues to highlight the situation until the policy is declared to be at an end.