Single rooms in hospitals are squeezing out the ward

NEW hospitals may have to be built with single patient rooms only in a bid to boost privacy and tackle infections.

It could mark an end to the hospital ward in which multiple patients occupy beds separated by curtains in one room.

Only half of rooms in new hospital buildings are required to be single patient only but chiefs at the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) are assessing whether to raise this to 100 per cent, according to a report by the Health Service Journal.

The move could see major design changes to the £3.7bil