BEWARE!!! All Hospital Rooms are now co-ed, Unisex

Angel....all I can say is WOW after reading your post. I am shocked and mortified.  I am so SORRY for the insensitivity of the nurses that took care of you. In fact, the way you were treated was ABUSE! As a nurse in the US and a patient, I totally understand where you are coming from.  At the hospitals I have worked at I have never seen a male and female in a room unless they were related. And as to patient privacy, that is hospital rule #1. In fact, in our hospital we verbalize "we are closing the curtain for your privacy" even to patients that are unconscious! I'm not sure how complaint procedures work in Canada but I think they would be the same as the US....if you express a concern (or complaint) to your nurse and get no resolution, ask to speak to someone in charge. If you get no resolution from that person ask to speak to a manager or nursing supervisor.  Unfortunately, most of us in the hospital are at the mercy of those that care for us as we are too sick to deal with complaints....but you can complain once you get home too...just call the nursing administration office.  Again, I am mortified and disgusted by what happened to you!

ymb, I'm quite distressed that this happened to you, but glad it finally got resolved.  I spoke to a nurse friend who said this was the first she'd heard of unisex rooms, and we are both checking with the Ontario Hospital Association to see what's what.  She said, in her experience, it has only happened in a dire emergency -- in other words, a lack of a bed due to emergency surgeries - and that the situation is remedied as soon as possible.

I find this very hard to believe.  Sorry but that's just my opinion.

I didn't call you a liar.  I find it hard to believe that all our hospitals have gone co-ed.That's what the title of this thread implies.

Dear Ymb- That is just terrrible that you had to go through such a tramatic experience like that, i hope that you do contact the medical board and let them know how you were treated....IM sorry to use your thread for what im about to say to blue dalia

Bluedalia- i havnt been on this site for very long and havnt posted very much i come here to learn and get comfort, every time i go to a thread there is always some one arguing, and i dont get it, the way you phrased it to ymb was saying she was lieing, it was not that you said you cant believe it, it was saying "in your opinion"I read some of your posts and it seems like you are always saying things to tick people off and when they come back to you, and say somthing you dont like you say they are being "unchristian" i see you go to the athiest thread, well i would like to say, we are all human and make mistakes no matter what are choices are, being christain has nothing to do with it, is that why you treat people bad becasue you dont belive in god, im sorry im just fed up with all the fighting and arguing here all the time and its usally caused by all of the athesiest(not always but most of the time) so i wont be back to this site anymore , i wont be reading any thing you have to say either so dont bother

good luck ladies i will be praying for ALL of you

Okay, let's clear this up.  I just spoke to administration at my local general hospital.  Hospital rooms in Ontario are NOT co-ed.  There are rare occasions (such as happened to you, YMB) when patients are "doubled up" for infection control purposes, or when there have been many emergency surgeries resulting in a shortage of beds, or at least male-only or female-only, beds, and this has happened for many, many years.  But the general rule is that women are placed with women, and men are placed with men.

Still, ymb, I think you should lodge a complaint with your hospital about the manner in which you were treated by the nursing staff.  By and large, nurses are the most caring, wonderful human beings on the face of the earth.  But I bet, with the infection control problems they were having, you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  However, patients do come first! 

Cheers, Linda

Angel, I'm really sorry about what you experienced.  Reading through these posts, here's what I've concluded:

- It appears that the Ontario policy is to allow co-ed rooms in situations where it is necessary, for example if there is a shortage of beds or for infection control reasons.  I'm in Ontario and to me this seems reasonable. 

- Angel, it sounds as though your hospital has stretched these rules and therefore perhaps don't take as much care as they should in managing room assignments.  As a result, they frequently put people into co-ed rooms and they use "Ontario policy" as an excuse. To me this is not reasonable and it does not seem to be consistent with practices at other Ontario hospitals.

- Angel it also seems that you encountered some nurses who maybe aren't the most caring or professional, or perhaps who were just overworked and/or having a bad day.  What you experienced was terrible.

So, while everyone who goes to hospital in Ontario probably should be aware that it's possible to end up in a co-ed room, unless you're going to Victoria Hospital in London, it doesn't sound like this is something to be overly concerned about. 

And Angel, as has been suggested, to address the particular situation you faced, which clearly was unacceptable, you should write a formal complaint to the administration at Victoria Hospital. 

Sorry for being so blunt about this but it seems that continuing to debate this, particularly since there's already been some nastiness and there already are hurt feelings, isn't going to be very helpful and is only going to lead to more arguments.  We already have enough of that on this board!  JMO.

I wasn't suggesting that Angel's post was looking to start an argument, not at all.  I apologize if that's how my post reads.  I understand the need to vent and I know how important it is to get support and acknowledgement when something goes wrong.  I also appreciate being warned about the possibility of being put into a co-ed room.  But as I read the string of responses, obviously have been disagreements, bad words and hurt feelings. So if this thread has inadvertently become a lightening rod for arguments, unless there is new information to add, it might be better to lay this issue to rest.  That doesn't take away in any way from the terrible experience that Angel had.

As I said, JMO.

Edited to add:  Ann, I just saw your post after I posted my mine.  Thank you!

I can't speak for anyone else, but the last two times I was in the hospital for surgery, I shared the room both times with men....I don't believe the hospital has necessarily gone coed, but I think perhaps it was a shortage in the post-surgical ward...?