Florence's story led to scandal report
A grandmother was left without food or water and told by nurses to wet the bed if she needed the toilet at Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital - according to a report out today.
The shocking story is revealed in a Patients' Association report out today detailing the "nightmare of NHS care" received by some patients, many of them elderly.
Widow Florence Weston, 85, was reduced to tears when she was told off by a nurse for soiling the sheets, according to her son.
Mrs Weston was admitted to hospital with a fractured hip after a fall at her home in Tower Street, Sedgley. She was admitted to Russells Hall in December 2007 and died a month later in a Birmingham hospital.
Retired company director Mike Weston, aged 64, who described his mother as being "fiercely independent," told her story today.
He said: "She was told that because of being unable to use the lavatory facilities she should wet the bed.
"Even worse on one occasion a night nurse told her off for doing this, severely enough to reduce her to tears and cause her to ask me if she could go home."
Mr Weston also claims his mother waited days for her operation, which was repeatedly cancelled. Because of this she was given nil by mouth.
He said: "Our family often wonder if she would have survived had she been operated on sooner."
Mr Weston, of Devizes, Wiltshire, added a first operation in December 2007 failed and his mother was transferred to the Orthopaedic Hospital in Northfield.
Chief executive of Russells Hall Hospital, Paul Farenden, said: "We cannot confirm if the patient was told 'to wet the bed' by a member of the nursing staff."
He added improvements had been made, one of which is for patients to receive surgery for fractured hip which is less than 24 hours from admission.
Mr Farenden also expressed sincere condolences to the family.
