NEARLY HALF of patients at Southampton hospitals were forced to stay in a mixed-sex ward, according to a survey.

The national survey of inpatients found 49 per cent of respondents at the city's hospitals said they had shared a sleeping area with patients of the opposite sex when first admitted to a bed or ward. That is the sixth highest rate in England.

In Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital the proportion taken to a mixed-sex ward was 35 per cent.

The survey, carried out last autumn by the Independent Healthcare Commission, found the practice of accommodating patients on mixed-sex wards was still widespread across England.

Judy Gillow, director of nursing at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Southampton General and Princess Anne hospitals, said: "As a trust, we recognise how important it is for patients to be cared for on single-sex wards wherever possible and have lots of work going on to help us achieve this.

"Some of our wards are highly-specialised and simply do not have room to accommodate same-sex wards. However, our nurses as a priority do all they can to ensure patients' privacy and dignity is respected at all times."

Juliet Beal, acting chief executive of Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust, said: "Providing the appropriate treatment for patients takes precedence over providing single-sex accommodation, although we make every effort to maintain patients' dignity and privacy.

Uncomfortable' "We monitor this situation and we accept that patients feel uncomfortable in mixed sex areas. We will redouble our efforts to ensure that we can provide single sex accommodation wherever possible."

In better news for Hampshire health trusts, 86 per cent of respondents in Southampton and 91 per cent in Winchester rated their overall care in hospital "excellent", "very good" or "good".