Vince Cable

Vincent Cable MP has taken up with the management of West Middlesex Hospital the continued use of mixed sex wards and the lack of dignity in them for some elderly people.

He has raised the issue on behalf of the family of a, now deceased, elderly Teddington resident, Mr W. The family, who now live in Northumberland, were appalled when they visited Richmond Ward at the Hospital, shortly before he died at the end of last year. Patients of the opposite sex, some with dementia, were exposed without any attempt at screening their modesty.

Vincent Cable said: "The Government has promised for a long time to eliminate mixed wards for precisely the reason experienced by this elderly, late, resident: that there can be total loss of dignity when men and women, physically and mentally ill, are thrown together. I have written to the Hospital - which is, after all, a new purpose-built building - asking for an explanation as to why these unacceptable practices occur at the Hospital."