A DEMENTIA patient was transferred from a Worcestershire hospital to a nursing home with no personal belongings, three days earlier than planned and without his family being told.

Jill Loader only found out her father Edward Starkey, aged 87, had been moved to the home when she visited with her husband to check out the facilities.

A spokesman for the hospital has since apologised and launched an investigation.

Mrs Loader, of Pickersleigh Road, Malvern, is also angry about the standards of treatment given to dementia patients which she claims to have witnessed at the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch.

Mr Starkey, a grandfather of three, was admitted to the Alex after suffering a stroke.

He spent about three months there before his family secured him a place at Astley Hall nursing home in Stourport-on-Severn.

Mr Starkey, who had lived in Malvern for the previous six years, was due to be transferred on Monday, May 2 but was actually taken the previous Friday.

Mrs Loader said her father was transferred without any of his personal belongings or medical equipment.

The 51-year-old said: “It’s disgraceful. They sent him away with a comb and a five pence piece. He didn’t have any catheter bags or anything. We went to the nursing home to have a look around and while I was there one of the sisters at the home phoned me to say dad was there.

“We went to the hospital and no one could explain to me what had happened. They had a bag ready with all his stuff in it.”

Mrs Loader said in the three months her father was there she was disgusted at the treatment she claims to have seen being given to dementia patients.

She said: “It seemed to me like the ones who could get up and make themselves a cup of tea were fine but those who couldn’t hardly had anything to drink.

She claims once she found her dad “hallucinating with dehydration”. Mrs Loader also said her father’s catheter bag was kept in his bed rather than hung up so nurses could see it. On one occasion she had to point out to a nurse that her father’s urine had blood in it, which turned out to be an infection.

Mr Starkey is currently being treated for MRSA which his family believe he contracted at the hospital.

A spokesman from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We would like to apologise to the family for the upset and inconvenience the early transfer of Mr Starkey caused.

“It does appear that there was some misunderstanding and we are looking further into how this could have happened.”

She declined to comment on the standards of care given to dementia patients at the hospital.