News about this from 2010. And, as above, this seems to have been an ideal for as long as I've been in a position to experience it at the sharp end. (And I think that the various Carry On [Nurse/Doctor]s depicted separate wards (with suitably comedic interactions across the divides, as well as the sex-politics of the stereotypical male-doctor/female-nurse dichotomy), plus something like
Only When I Laugh taking it as read, too.)
The fuss 'over here' looks to me as having been not able to make it inviolably
absolute (i.e. necessity putting an occasional spanner in the works, hospital facilities not being funded enough to be the ideal buffet[1]), thus having occasional breaches while shuffling is organised. And every few years there seems to be 'questions' about why it isn't 100% (at least for England/Wales, I think Scotland's ok and dunno currently about NI).
Which is the basis for whether there is
or isn't a problem with/for trans individuals. If it was all omnisex wards then it'd be barely an issue, in comparison. Being separate, it therefor concerns people a lot more (both ways, according to opinion and (perceived) scenario).
[1] "If there's not too much, there isn't enough". By funding (perhaps) to cover the average resource needs over time there's always going to be blips that exceed that, which then adds backlog over the 'average times' and even eat into the dips in demand, and probably ends up costing more in the long run by not having sometimes conspicuously copious unused capacity. But very little effort has been put into sufficiently adding capacity. If, indeed, recent governments have even fulfilled the theoretical average...