Today myself and Laura Rutherford, a toilet champion from Falkirk, met with Susan Grant the Chief Architect for NHS Facilities Scotland, which is part of NHS National Services Scotland.

We  wanted to make sure that all future new hospitals and community health centres included a fully accessible toilet in their public areas. Laura, who lives in Falkirk was dismayed when she discovered that Forth Valley hospital had no suitable changing places toilets for her son when he visited the hospital.  Forth Valley was opened in 2011, and we expected that such a new hospital would cater for everyone’s needs!

The guidance for sanitary provision in hospitals was written by the Department of Health  in 2014 and doesn’t include the provision of CP toilets.  We  hope that in the very near future a cover note for NHS Scotland on these guidance notes will include CP toilets and this is looking likely.  Generally, it was a very positive meeting and despite the lack of written guidance it does appear that future new hospitals and community health centres in Scotland are including CP toilets at the design stage.

The provision of Changing Places toilets in hospitals is so important as they are open in the evening and at weekends and provide a network across Scotland.