Families condemn hospital failings
The families of 38 people who suffered "appalling" failings in care from an NHS hospital trust say it must never happen again.
Legal action has been taken against Worcestershire Acute Hospital Trust after claims that patients were left starving, dehydrated and left to wallow in their own excrement.
In one of the worst cases, an 84-year-old man starved to death at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire, in June 2009.
Some patients were left thirsty with drinks left out of reach while others were left to sit in their own excrement.
Other instances include an elderly woman who went unwashed for 11 weeks and later died, and a man who was unable to feed himself, and whose nurses would simply take his uneaten food away, according to his daughter.
There were further claims from the families of a man whose ribs were broken while hospital staff attempted to lift him, and a great-grandmother whose hip fracture went undetected by doctors.
A class action legal case was brought against Worcestershire Acute Hospital Trust, which has now issued written apologies to each of the families involved.
The trust has also agreed to pay compensation totalling £410,000, after accepting the standard of care it provided to elderly patients fell well short of the minimum.
Among those receiving an apology are the family of 73-year-old Colin White, who was admitted to the Alexandra in July 2009. His daughter Kim, from Gloucester, described how there was "no respect or dignity" for her father during his stay at the hospital.
She says her father was not fed properly, doctors and nurses were uncommunicative, and on one occasion he was left lying in soiled bedding.
