Good Practice Guidelines: Gender Issues

• In many cultures, men and women are strictly segregated. This may have implications for healthcare in relation to admission onto a mixed ward and physical examinations or tests being carried out by staff of the opposite gender.

• There may even be implications for staff, who may not feel comfortable treating members of the opposite sex. Where possible, arrange for women to be treated by women and admitted to all-female wards; similar consideration should be shown to men.

Children and women may feel more comfortable being treated if they are allowed to have a chaperone with them at all times. For married women, this may be their husband or a female relative. For children, this might be the mother.