"Still upset by hospital's treatment of my elderly father"

When my 96 year old dad was in hospital in 2009, he was not only never washed all over, during the eight weeks he was in hospital (despite incontinence brought on by the drugs), he was never helped to eat (I fed him, whenever I could be there) nor to drink (the water was placed on a locker, at the far end of the room) and he was never dressed warmly - despite having pneumonia.

Again and again I found him in a thin hospital pyjama jacket, no trousers, and a thin cover over his knees, sitting shivering in a chair with his hands like ice. I made constant requests for more blankets, and for him to be dressed in his own warm clothes, and was given insincere assurances, but nothing was ever done.

The call bell was *always* on the floor, out of reach of his high hospital bed.

When he left the hospital, his care home was quite appalled - not only at his weight loss, which was considerable, but at his unwashed state.

I did my best to talk to the ward staff, but could rarely get them to stop long enough either to explain what was happening to him or to ask them to help with his basic care. I didn't 'whistle blow' because I was afraid they might take it out on him, and he was very old and vulnerable.

This went on in Yeovil hospital, in Somerset. My dad has died since, but it still fills me with anger and distress to remember the time he spent in that hospital, and the awful time he went through.