HOSPITALS in Worcester-shire are fully compliant with mixed sex rules while others around the country are being fined for breaches.

NHS hospitals nationally owe at least £665,000 in fines for just one month after they breached rules on mixed sex wards but Worcestershire’s hospitals are all complying with the new rules.

A spokesman for Worcester-shire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “There have been no ‘same sex breaches’ at Worcestershire Royal Hospital during April 2011 and therefore we have not incurred any fines.”

There were two breaches at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch but were deemed to be clinically justified and no fines were imposed.

All three hospitals – the Royal, Alex and Kiddermins-ter – are now compliant with the rules which are designed to protect the dignity of patients.

The number of patients sleeping in mixed sex wards around the country is falling and halved between March and April. But data from the Department of Health reveals there were still 2,660 patients placed in mixed sex accommodation in April without clinical justification.

Hospitals are being fined £250 per patient per day for the breaches, with the cash deducted from the sums they are given by primary care trusts (PCTs).

The Department of Health does not collect data on how long each patient stays on a mixed sex ward, but even if each patient in April stayed on the ward for one day only, hospital fines for that month add up to £665,000.

Of 166 acute trusts that submitted data for April, 59 per cent reported no breaches, compared with 52 per cent in March. Some 18 acute trusts reported an increase in breaches. In December 2010, the overall number of breaches was much higher, at 11,802 patients. Since then, the number has dropped by 77 per cent.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “Mixed sex accommodation has no place in a modern NHS.”