Responses from 132 hospital trusts to a Freedom of Information request found that 15% still used at least one open-plan, mixed-sex ward.

The government said progress was being made but admitted there was more to do.

It is degrading to patients

Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern

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Labour pledged to end mixed-sex accommodation in both its 1997 and 2001 manifestos.

By 2006 ministers were claiming it had been achieved in 99% of cases, but patient surveys soon showed this to be untrue.

A government report in 2007 accepted 15% of trusts still had not achieved it.

Under the government's definition of mixed-sex accommodation, patients should be kept in bays divided at the very least by fixed full-height partitions.

Patients should also not be expected to walk past others of the opposite sex to go to washing or toilet facilities either.

Intensive care and A&E departments are not included for practical reasons.

Failing

The Tories' freedom of information request on mixed-sex accommodation - the second of its kind carried out in the past year - was answered by 132 hospital trusts and 55 mental health trusts. For the latter, there was just one (2%) that had a mixed-sex ward.

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As well as the use of "Nightingale" wards, 16% of hospital and 8% of mental health centres relied on curtains.

And nearly a third were failing on the requirement that patients should not walk past those of the opposite sex when they were going to use washing or toilet facilities.

The issue of mixed-sex accommodation has become a priority for the Tories.