Patients say they were left lying in dirty sheets in fresh failings at Stafford and Cannock hospitals

The revelations contain echoes of Stafford's crisis period between 2005 and 2009.

However, most of the problems that have emerged today relate to the period since 2009. Jan Sensier, chief executive of Engaging Communities Staffordshire, which was in charge of the study, said the problems needed to be taken extremely seriously by hospital bosses.

Appalling standards of care between 2005 and 2009 were scrutinised during the Francis inquiry, which led to sweeping recommendations for NHS reform.

Ms Sensier said today: "We do have to recognise that a quarter of the responses we received came from the period up to 2009, where the problems at the hospital are well documented.

However most of the feedback came from experiences in 2012, with some as recently as early this year.

"A significant proportion, 22 per cent, of these more recent experiences were negative, so I don't think we should see these as purely historical issues.

"Our study showed a real polarisation of opinion, with some respondents reporting extremely serious complaints and others singing the hospitals' praises.

"Managers and clinicians must not take their eyes off the ball, and we're asking people who use Stafford Hospital to be our eyes and our ears." One in four patients said their experience of Stafford or Cannock had been negative and there were 26 who said they had been treated with a lack of dignity or respect. There were also 22 who complained about staff being unresponsive to their needs. There were 17 complaints of staff being rude, including a report of a nurse refusing to take a patient to the toilet because she had too much paperwork.

Another key issue was the degree of public concern about the future of the hospital, recently evidenced by the public march and petition.

However, patients reporting a positive experience were full of praise for the hospital, its staff and services. One patient said: "I am cared for, not simply treated, and I never feel like a number."

Healthwatch Staffordshire published the study, which was commissioned by independent consumer champion Engaging Communities Staffordshire.

The survey results have been passed to the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs both hospitals, and Healthwatch volunteers have been invited to join monthly visits to the sites. Dr Paul Woodmansey, medical director at the trust, said: "We will always continue to welcome feedback, whether good or bad, as we want to learn from both and improve the care for our patients. It is pleasing that the majority of people who responded to the survey had experienced good care in our hospitals."

Trust special administrators are due to reveal their recommendations for the future of Stafford and Cannock hospitals on July 31. A £70 million downgrade of services was recommended in a report commissioned by health watchdog Monitor. Those proposals would see accident and emergency, maternity and intensive care services withdrawn from Stafford. A petition of 50,000 signatures calling for services to be retained there was last week delivered to Parliament by Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy.

A march organised by the Support Stafford Hospital group attracted 50,000 people, which organisers say shows the strength of feeling over the downgrade plans. It comes after the report commissioned by Monitor said Mid Staffs was financially and clinically unsustainable in its current form.