Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust have denied claims that they do not allow male visitors to female wards for fear of offending women of certain faiths.

In a letter sent to the Daily Mail yesterday (January 15), George R Thompson claimed that whilst their daughter was a patient at Lewisham Hospital, her partner could not visit her due to her being on a female ward.

The letter also states that male visitors are banned from visiting female wards at the hospital due to "it offending women of certain faiths."

Some people have taken this letter as fact and have tweeted politicians such as Nigel Farage and Jeremy Hunt, asking them why men are not allowed on female wards at Lewisham Hospital.

In response to the letter in the Daily Mail, a spokesman for Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, said: "During visiting hours on an inpatient ward, visitors of both sexes may be present within the ward, it is important that patients can spend time with friends and family while in hospital.

"In a recovery area in theatres, patients having day surgery usually do not have any visitors until they are ready to go home and move to a pre-discharge area.

"To meet single sex accommodation requirements in this area, there are separate female and male recovery areas, this is not a ward, and space is much more restricted around a patient recovering from day case surgery than you would find on a ward.

"For this reason, on occasions that it is appropriate for a recovering patient to have a visitor, for the privacy and dignity of the other patients in the recovery area we restrict visitors to the same sex unless exceptional circumstances exist."