The Government has confirmed that the NHS might just end up eliminating all mixed-sex wards across all hospitals, taking former Health Secretary Alan Johnson's announcement which came out in May, that all such accommodations would be abolished within a year, a step further.

Now, Health Minister Ann Keen has said that by June next year, "improvement schemes in hospitals to get rid of mixed-sex accommodation" will be more-or-less complete. Any trust that fails to offer single-sex wards by 2010 will be slapped with financial penalties.

A report compiled by a taskforce, called the Delivering Same-Sex Accommodation - The Story So Far, has revealed that ample amounts of money has been spent on over 2,300 new or revamped toilets and bathrooms, and over 10,800 extra "modesty curtains" have been purchased by patients who are currently housed in the same-sex areas.

"Time and again we have heard Labour Ministers boast about how they are within touching distance of abolishing mixed-sex wards. If we are going to get rid of mixed-sex wards once and for all we need to focus on building more single rooms in NHS hospitals. But instead Labour have focused on buying thousands of extra curtains", said Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.