There have been more than 120,000 recorded breaches of NHS England guidance on mixed-sex hospital accommodation in the last six years, according to reports.

This amounts to a 257 per cent increase over this time with thousands of breaches recorded every month, putting patient dignity and safety at risk.

According to the NHS constitution in 2012, hospital patients will not share accommodation with members of the opposite sex.

However, there are some exemptions such as critical care wards or patients receiving treatments such as chemotherapy because of the comfort from being in the presence of other patients with similar conditions.

Also, the guidance states that patients should not share toilet or bathroom facilities with members of the opposite sex.

But according to The Observer, between July 2017 and July 2023, 126,404 mixed-sex accommodation breaches were reported.

The monthly figure was 899 for July 2017 while in July this year there was a recorded a figure of 3,211.

However, the paper added that the true number may be higher and data collection was suspended from March 2020 to September 2021 to increase NHS capacity during the pandemic.

In the first four months of this financial year, NHS England recorded 13,654 breaches.

Since October 2017, the number of monthly breaches has not dropped below 1,000 and the month with the fewest breaches since recording began was in June 2014 with 110.

It comes after Health Secretary Steve Barclay announced a ban on transgender patients being accommodated in female-only and male-only NHS wards at the Tory conference.

But this has stoked criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates with Paul Martin, chief executive of LGBT Foundation, and Alex Matheson, its deputy director of education saying: 'The UK government’s plan to stop trans people from using healthcare wards that match their gender is morally wrong and ethically indefensible.'

But author of Defending Women's Spaces Karen Ingala-Smith said: 'Women make hundreds of conscious and unconscious decisions to keep ourselves safe from men.

'Women should not have to be on their guard like this when they are in hospital.'

An NHS spokesperson told the paper that trusts were taking action to reduce breaches of the accommodation guidance. They also said they remained rare.

Mr Barclay is planning on pushing back against 'wokery' in the health service, claiming women's rights are being sidelined.

The move will also see 'sex-specific' language return to the NHS, meaning terms such as breastfeeding will no longer be replaced by 'chestfeeding'.

Mr Barclay said: 'We need a common-sense approach to sex and equality issues in the NHS. That is why I am announcing proposals for clearer rights for patients.

'And I can confirm that sex-specific language has now been fully restored to online health advice pages about cervical and ovarian cancer and the menopause.

'It is vital that women's voices are heard in the NHS and the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected.'

The changes will give men and women the right to share wards with people of the same biological sex and have intimate care only from those of the same sex.