Stretched NHS staff were forced to give bed-bound patients adult nappies because there was no one available to help, a shocking report has revealed.

The report by Gransnet and the Health Service Ombudsman warned that the elderly are often too afraid to voice any complaints and are left to "suffer in silence" at NHS hospitals across the country.

The report surveyed 600 people with elderly family members who had stayed in hospital overnight in the past year.

Worrying accounts detailed accusations of neglect, leaving elderly patients in their faeces and staff shortages.

In one case, one family member wrote: "The staff use adult 'nappies' for patients who can't get out of bed... however these were used as a convenience as when my dad was better and could get out of bed with help and asked to use the commode he was told to do it in the nappy as there was no-one available to help him."
Families reported complaints of neglect (
Image:
Getty)
Staff shortages are crippling the NHS (File image) (
Image:
E+)

Another case said a grandmother was left "in her own filth overnight" and the family were the ones who had to clean her up.

In one shocking account, a woman said her husband had to call an ambulance because he was left on the hospital floor after falling over.

She told the survey: “No-one came. Lay on the floor for 75 minutes in agony before a doctor could be found."

Another alarming case detailed how nurses reportedly "fell about laughing" at a patient who had fallen out of bed.
Families are concerned about their loved ones in hospitals (File pic) (
Image:
Getty)
Recovering elderly patient on a general ward (
Image:
Getty)

It said: "When I visited he had fallen out of bed. Nurses at the nursing station fell about laughing and continues while helping me lift him."

Another relative complained that another patient had groped their mother.

"Mum was groped by a male patient coming into her room. When I complained I was told, "Oh yes, he gets confused." Why was he given access to female area?", they told the survey.
A female nurse helping an elderly woman patient stand up (
Image:
Getty)

The survey found that two-thirds (67%) of those who complained do not believe complaining makes a difference.

And of those who were concerned about the treatment of their older relative, just over half (58%) complained.

A spokesman for NHS Improvement said: "Feedback from patients and their families on their care and experience is and will remain to be critical in helping the NHS provide the high standards of care that the service strives to deliver every day.”