AWARD-winning carers at Winchester hospital “ignored” an elderly dementia patient and discharged her on a cold winter’s day in a nightie, a relative has claimed.

Staff at Royal Hampshire County Hospital’s Clifton Ward “chit-chatted” while patients called for help and released 90-year-old Vera Lawrence without her walking stick, her daughter told the Hampshire Chronicle.

Mary Hellard, who visited her mother in hospital after a fall in October, said nurses would dawdle when called by patients, with some elderly people waiting up to half an hour to be taken to the toilet.

She said: “Several of us that were visitors were getting extremely worried because a lot of staff ... seemed to prefer talking together at the nurses’ station and wouldn’t hear the elderly people saying ‘can I have the toilet please?’ “After about five or 10 minutes they said ‘please, please, please help me to the toilet’, [still] being ignored by staff. There seemed to be a culture of chit-chat – they’re treated with disrespect and a lack of dignity.”

Mrs Hellard said she saw one member of staff discussing her back pain within earshot of patients asking for help.

Clifton Ward, an elderly rehabilitation unit, won a national care prize at the Nursing Times awards in October.

Mrs Lawrence, of Surrey Road, Chandler’s Ford, was discharged to a care home in Bishopstoke after another fall in December, where Clifton staff sent her without her walking stick or frame.

The retired factory worker was left with two bags of clean clothes but dressed in a “flimsy nightie” despite wintry conditions, Mrs Hellard said.

“Hospitals don’t seem to realise or they’re just not caring enough for these elderly folks,” she added. “I was totally surprised that Winchester could do that.

“It musn’t happen again – I had a gut feeling it isn’t a one-off. She’s worked all her life and paid into the NHS from the day it started in 1948. I really was very angry.”

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust declined to comment on claims that patients were ignored on Clifton Ward, but Edmund Cartwright, deputy chief nurse, apologised for staff leaving behind Mrs Lawrence’s walking aids.

He said: “A member of staff was able to deliver them to the patient on the same day. “Nursing staff and our patient transport colleagues make sure patients are appropriately dressed when they leave hospital. When outdoor clothes are not available blankets are used to ensure patients are warm.

“It is extremely important to us that our patients have a good experience when in our care.”