ANGER is mounting over the use of a mixed sex ward at Hereford County Hospital.

The practice, revealed in The Hereford Times on May 30, has been described as an affront to human dignity and 'shameful'.

Herefordshire Community Health Council will discuss the 'men and women in the same ward' row at a meeting next Tuesday, July 1.

The watchdog council complained to Hereford Hospitals Trust after 22 male and female patients were moved from the Age Care unit at General Hospital and put together in Monnow Ward, a hutted ward at the County.

The response from the trust, not disclosed, will be discussed at Tuesday's meeting.

But since the complaint was reported The Hereford Times has received many letters and phone calls from groups and individuals describing their 'shock and horror' .

Tupsley Townswomen's Guild and a member of the Age Concern Advisory Panel are among those to lodge objections.

Dignity

More have come from individuals reluctant to be identified publicly for the sake of their relatives who could still be in hospital.

One writer, concerned about her father, said mixed wards were not simply an affront to people's dignity but led to despair for patients, family and healthcare workers.

The reality of being hospitalised in mixed sex wards should be made clear, she said.

And she gives details of the experiences of her father when he was a stroke patient in the General Hospital.

She wrote: "With no time for a nurse to take him to the toilet, and known to be constipated, my embarrassed father was sat behind the bed curtains on a commode, his feet dangling inches above the floor, and in my presence told loud and clear to 'tuck those bits and pieces in'.

"On another occasion a confused woman sitting opposite began to undress herself. She was told 'put your boobs away, there's men in here'. A man undressed and naked, stood to use a washing bowl to relieve himself. From the other end of the ward he was shouted at by staff to sit down."

The writer said on either side of her father were similarly 'poorly and distressed people', both women.

Distress

She spoke to the consultant responsible for her father who said that if the people of Herefordshire 'don't demand a better level of service they won't get it'.

Another caller complained of the distress of an elderly female patient in a bed opposite a male patient who spent much of his time using a bottle, exposing himself in the process.

"She has been so upset, how can she get better under such circumstances?'' she asked.

Many have accused Hereford Hospitals Trust of breaking its promise not to continue with mixed wards at the new hospital.

The trust responded by saying that this would not happen in the new hospital but they could not give this guarantee for the hutted wards. When the furbished Monnow Ward took in mixed patients last month it was described as a 'temporary measure.'

No one from the trust was available to comment on the present situation this week.

l TELL The Hereford Times what you think about mixed sex wards and any experiences - good or bad - you, your family or friends have had: email htnewsdesk@newsquestmidlands.co.uk or call 01432 274413.