The leaked report questioned the safety of elderly patients

A leaked 2004 report on care standards at Whitchurch Hospital in Cardiff has questioned the safety of patients.

Experts called in by hospital managers were told by staff that lessons had not been learnt from serious incidents involving patients' welfare.

Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust said it had since developed an action plan to tackle the issues raised by the report.

However, the BBC News website has spoken to a number of people who remain concerned about patient care.

The other patients were just left to wander - there were some good caring nurses there but they were in a minority Pat Erickson

The report, commissioned by the trust and published in March 2004, was a review of the services for elderly mentally ill patients at Whitchurch.

It said staff had admitted there had been a "high level" of "serious adverse incidents" and there had been a lack of management accountability.

It found that due process had not been followed in two serious investigations.

The report did not identify these incidents but in September 2003 the BBC reported that a patient had lain dead in bed for almost 10 hours before her death was discovered.

The Alzheimer's Society has set up a group for carers of patients

More recently, the BBC understands that a nurse was suspended under the hospital's disciplinary procedure after a claim that a patient had been left lying overnight on the floor of a television room.

A source who works at the hospital and who asked not to be identified told the BBC of personal concerns over patients' care, although the NHS trust has given the BBC details of what it has done to improve the situation on the wards.

However, continued concerns about the care and management of elderly patients at Whitchurch Hospital has led the local branch of the Alzheimer's Society to form a new group specifically for people who have a relative receiving treatment at the unit.

Co-ordinator Dawn John said that although relatives were reluctant to complain directly to the hospital, there were a number of concerns that had come to the society's attention in the past 12 months.

These included patients suffering unexplained scratches and bruises; being left to sit in their own urine or faeces; being thirsty; and not being washed regularly.

The hospital is run by the largest NHS trust in Wales

Pat Erickson, of Penylan, Cardiff, whose mother has dementia, said she had been distressed at the care her mother had received during a month-long stay at Whitchurch early in 2004.

Mrs Erickson, who is herself a nurse, said: "I asked where her clothes were and they did not know.

"I told them it was like going back to pre-historic times. I had to leave the ward, I was so distressed.

"The other patients were just left to wander. There were some good caring nurses there but they were in a minority."

Mrs Erickson said she later received a letter from the hospital which said training had been instigated for staff on how to deal with relatives and the other issues she had raised.

Whitchurch Hospital is run by Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, the largest such trust in Wales and the third largest in England and Wales.

In a statement, the trust said the report had raised a number of issues, including standards of care, roles and accountabilities and clinical staff development.

'New equipment for wards'

The trust said the report had been "very helpful" and, as a result, it had introduced an action plan to address the issues concerned and that improvements had been made.

A spokesman said the trust was recruiting extra staff to "ensure appropriate staff-patient ratios".

He said: "Ward managers are now on specific development courses designed to improve their managerial and clinical leadership skills.

"Regular audits of care are carried out on wards and improvements required are actioned.

"Ward environments have been reviewed and further improvements planned, including new equipment."

The trust also said it had agreed to appoint a nurse lecturer in Mental Health Services for Older People.

'Confidential evidence'

However, a spokesman said the trust would not respond to complaints from anonymous sources.

The 2004 report on care standards was carried out by the Welsh Assembly Government's Clinical Governance Support and Development Unit.

A Welsh Assembly Government spokesman said: "Evidence taken in these reviews is given on a confidential basis and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment on the detail."

The Royal College of Nursing and the trade unions Unison and Amicus each said they would be concerned at incidents which affected patients' care.