December 2013
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust are pleased to confirm that we are compliant with the government’s requirement to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation, except when it is in the patient’s overall best interest, or reflects their personal choice. We have the necessary facilities, resources and culture to ensure that patients who are admitted to our hospitals will only share the room where they sleep with members of the same sex, and same-sex toilets and bathrooms will be close to their bed area.
Sharing with members of the opposite sex will only happen when patients actively choose to share in appropriate circumstances where partners are being treated at the same time and where this is appropriate.
If our care should fall short of the required standard, we will report it. We will also set up an audit mechanism to make sure that we do not misclassify any of our reports.
We have discussed with our lead commissioner arrangements for local reporting and monitoring and this will be reviewed on a regular basis through our formal quality monitoring processes.
