Women's experiences of hospital admission

The primary aim of this study was to examine women's experiences of inpatient psychiatric services. A secondary aim was to use the emerging themes in service planning and to develop an evaluation tool. Focus groups and individual interviews with women in receipt of psychiatric services in Croydon were used. The findings suggest continuity with both negative and positive aspects of institutional care described before the policy of community care was introduced. The attempts to ‘normalize’ institutional care by desegregating wards appear rather to have compounded problems faced by women. Women were clear about what they felt they wanted and needed. Women are dissatisfied about many aspects of care aside from the problems associated specifically with mixed sex wards. This suggests that sexual segregation of wards alone is a necessary but an insufficient measure to improve inpatient care. The findings can inform development of a women‐only service in Croydon and of a tool to evaluate it.