Your privacy and dignity in our hospitals

We are committed to providing our patients with the best possible care in a safe, clean and welcoming environment. We also want to make sure you are treated with the utmost privacy and dignity at all times.

Same sex accommodation

Same sex accommodation is when sleeping areas, toilets and bathrooms are for men only or women only. This means that during your stay in hospital you could be in:

• A same sex ward, where the whole ward is occupied by either men or women only
• A mixed ward where men and women have separate sleeping areas, toilets and bathrooms
• A single room with your own toilet and bathroom.

Toilets and bathrooms should be easy to get to and not far from your bed. You shouldn't have to go through accommodation used by patients of the opposite sex to get to your own sleeping area, toilet or bathroom.

Patients in most of our wards are cared for in single sex bays within a mixed ward. Every night, we monitor where patients sleep to make sure that this is happening wherever and whenever possible. We have single sex toilets and bathrooms which are clearly marked.

Read more about our wards and their facilities in our ward directory.

Sometimes the need to provide our patients with the best possible care outweighs the need to provide same sex accommodation, especially if you need urgent, highly specialised or hi-tech care.

Our intensive care, high dependency, coronary care and renal units, all fall into this category, along with acute stroke bays. See our ward directory for more infomation. 

In these areas you may be nursed in the same area as members of the opposite sex. However, we will move you into same sex accommodation as soon as you are well enough and there is an appropriate bed available.

At very busy times, the other area in which you may be placed into a bed next to someone of the opposite sex is the acute medical unit (AMU). This ward is an assessment area where patients receive additional tests which help us to decide if they need to be admitted to hospital or can go home.

Patients are admitted here directly here from A&E, and therefore large numbers of patients are admitted and discharged from this ward each day.

However, we would hope to be able to allocate you a bed in a same sex area (either within AMU or on another ward) within 24 hours.

Single rooms

We would like to be able to give every patient that wants one a single room while they are in hospital. Unfortunately, owing to the design and age of our current buildings, this is not always possible.

However, whenever we plan a ward refurbishment or open new buildings, the creation of new single rooms is always an important consideration.

You can have a single room in our Northey Suite for private patients at Epsom Hospital.

Here to help

Our staff will do all they can to protect your privacy and dignity at all times. If you have any concerns, please let us know as soon as possible so we can resolve any issues.

We will always try our best to meet your accommodation requirements, whether on cultural or religious grounds or simply your own personal preference.

If you have any specific requests regarding your accommodation in hospital, please let us know either before your admission or tell a member of staff in the first ward you are admitted to.

If it is not immediately possible to accommodate your wishes, we will explain the reasons why and try to move you to somewhere more acceptable to you as soon as possible.