David Wilkes
Daily Mail [UK]
27 Apr 2010
Her ‘loyal and devoted’ service as a Land Girl in the Second World War won her praise from Gordon Brown.
But this is the horrifyingly undignified state in which Clara Stokes had to live out her last days on an NHS [National Health Service] ward.
Helpless and confused after suffering a stroke, the 84-year-old was left dehydrated, hungry and lying in her own faeces in a hospital bed for six hours. Relatives claim overworked nurses had ignored her.
Clara Stokes, 84, was left dehydrated, hungry and lying in her own faeces by overworked nurses at Luton and Dunstable Hospital
Her daughter, Elle Chambers, photographed her plight and kept notes on her treatment during daily visits to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital.
The hospital has foundation status – a title given to NHS flagships. But Mrs Chambers, 57, was so appalled by the ‘inhumane’ conditions her mother endured that she has written to the Prime Minister.
She released the harrowing photographs of her mother after a poll for the Mail found that barely one in five voters think a doubling of budgets has improved the NHS.
Mrs Chambers and her daughter Michelle Plaford, 37, also found that water had been placed too far away from her bed and no staff had come to help her drink for up to 16 hours.
The pair were so disgusted by conditions they tried to feed other hungry and thirsty patients, only to be told by nursing staff they could not for ‘health and safety reasons’.
Honour: Gordon Brown at a ceremony at No10, acknowledging the contribution to the Second World War effort of around 50 surviving members - including Clara Stokes - of the Women's Land Army and the Women's Timber Corps
The lengthy article continues at the Daily Mail.
