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The number of patients being put on mixed-sex hospital wards has soared by 316% since ­Jeremy Hunt boasted the ­scandal had “virtually gone”.

The Health Secretary said in October 2013 the indignity of sick patients being forced to sleep next to the opposite sex had all but ended.

But the Daily Mirror has found this is not the case, with patients enduring mixed-sex wards nearly 10,000 times in the past year.

Lib Dem health spokeswoman Baroness Judith Jolly said: “This embarrassing failure is a sign of the intolerable pressure our health service is under.

(Image: AFP)

“Under the Conservatives’ watch, we are seeing standards fall and more and more patients being let down.”

NHS trusts are fined £250 per patient per day for breaching the rules on single-sex wards.

But critics say Tory cuts mean hospitals are so busy they have no option.

Our analysis of NHS England statistics found between October 2013 and September 2014, there were 2,340 mixed-sex ward breaches.

From October 2016 to September 2017, it had gone up to 9,741.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

The latest figures were slipped out on Thursday – the same day as PM Theresa May’s high-profile meeting with EU chiefs.

Despite the soaring number of breaches, the Department of Health last night claimed the monthly figures were still lower than in 2010.

It said: “Since 2010, mixed-sex accommodation breaches are down from almost 12,000 a month to less than 1,000 in September this year.”