READERS of the Oxford Mail have reacted to a report which said the NHS is failing to treat older people with care and dignity.

Yesterday the John Radcliffe Hospital was named in a report by Ann Abraham, the parliamentary and health service ombudsman, after a patient’s life-support machine was switched off without his family’s consent.

The hospital apologised and paid £1,000 compensation, but the overall report sparked a mixed response from readers.

Vivien Bowyer contacted us, claiming her late husband Peter was left almost naked on a mattress on the floor of a ward at the hospital.

She said she was “horrified” by the treatment of the former architect at the hospital in 2007 and 2008.

Mrs Bowyer, from Barton Village Road, Barton, Oxford, said of her husband’s cancer care: “I was horrified. The worst bit came when he woke up with terrible jaundice.

“He was sent to A&E on the Thursday, but on the Saturday I couldn’t believe what I saw. He was in the corner of a ward on a mattress on the floor, naked except for a nappy which he kept falling out of.

“I called my family, and they were horrified as well.

“My husband was crying, ‘help me’. It was terrible.”

Mrs Bowyer said a nurse from Sobell House managed to get him transferred to the hospice, where he died three days later, aged 70.

But Edwin Waugh, from Mortimer Drive, Old Marston, Oxford, had praise for the treatment he received at the John Radcliffe for various conditions.

The 82-year-old retired Cowley car plant worker said: “It was fantastic and the staff were lovely. Other hospitals ought to go and see how the JR deals with people. It is wonderful. I have had no complaints whatsoever.”

He added: “I was in for nine days last June after my leg went dead due to a problem with a small bone in my back.

“There were four of us on the same ward. One had a brain haemorrhage, one was blind and the other was in his 90s.

“The medical staff were brilliant. It’s a marvellous hospital. I am lucky to live near it.”

Elaine Strachan-Hall, chief nurse at the John Radcliffe, said the hospital could not comment on individual cases.

She said: “Patients and their families should always be treated with compassion and understanding. The Ombudsman’s report is a timely reminder that we must always remember the caring and human aspects of the work that we do.

“It is never acceptable for our care to patients to fall below these standards, and we are sorry to hear about any case where it has.

“When we do make mistakes, we try and learn from them. We use examples of where care has not gone as it should have done to teach our staff, as we have done with the case that went to the Ombudsman.”

Jacquie Pearce-Gervis, chairman of Oxford Patient Voice, said: “We have been very concerned about elderly patients getting access to food. It is often put in front of patients where they can’t reach it, or, if they are asleep or ill and don’t know it’s there, it is just taken away.”

Patient Voice is canvassing opinion on the quality and service of meals at the county’s hospitals on behalf of Oxfordshire LINk (Local Involvement Network).

To request a questionnaire call 01993 862855 or email oxfordshirelink@makesachange.org.uk