Patients at Biggleswade Hospital are now seeing their dignity and privacy completely respected after major building work has taken place

The hospital at Potton Road, has undergone a major refurbishment in a bid to eliminate mixed sex accommodation.

The refurbishment has seen the relocation of the gym and physiotherapy unit to a purpose-built modern extension to the hospital.

There are now also two single sex wards so that all patients are made to feel as comfortable as possible in their own ward.

Matron Debbie Kirk is over the moon with the improvements.

She said: "I'm really pleased with how the building looks now.

"Our privacy was good here before, but we didn't really have a building to carry it out as well as we can now, so it's really nice to now have that in place.

"As well as the major refurbishment work it's just little things that have been done, like both the cubicle curtains being able to close properly and nurses putting red pegs on the curtains if they don't want to be interrupted.

"It's just so that we can completely respect patients' rights to privacy and dignity. Bef-ore men were being wheeled through the wards when women weren't looking very dignified, but now they don't have to worry about that."

The improvement works were carried out before Christmas and it was officially launched yesterday, which ties in with Dignity Action Day.

The launch also introduced an initiative called Production Community Hospital, which is in place to help staff to increase the time they spend directly caring for patients by improving productivity and efficiency on wards.

For the full story pick up a copy of Friday, January 26 edition of the Biggleswade Chronicle.