RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans is calling for an end to mixed sex wards at the Royal Preston Hospital in Fulwood.

He has written to the hospital's chief executive, Tony Curtis, calling for the removal of the wards, after a constituent from Fulwood claimed she had slept with her walking stick to ward off potential prowlers.

He said: "There should be no need for mixed sex wards in the 21st Century. People feel uncomfortable and one elderly lady slept with her walking stick in hand, because a man was wandering round in the night. This is clearly not acceptable."

But Royal Preston Hospital chief executive Tony Curtis said the privacy and dignity of patients was being safeguarded at all times.

"Under the Government's definition, we have no mixed sex wards, although in areas such as coronary care and the Intensive Care Unit men and women are nursed together, which is accepted practice. Wards are segregated into male and female accommodation, with separate toilet and bathroom facilities.

"However, there are occasions when pressure on beds is so significant that there is not an equal distribution of patients of each sex on wards and this can result in men and women being nursed in adjacent bays. I must emphasise that segregation within the bays is maintained at all times and ward staff work hard to ensure the maximum degree of privacy."