The granddaughter of a Whitwick pensioner who spent six weeks in Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI) has criticised the standard of care she claims he received.

She said her grandfather, whom we are not naming to protect his privacy, was frequently in tears and asking to go home towards the end of his stay, saying the hospital was "horrible".

The woman, a veterinary nurse, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she believed people's pets received better care than the Leicester hospital had provided to the 80-year-old man.

The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL), which runs LRI, has offered its "sincerest apologies" to the family, and said it was currently investigating the complaint that it had failed with regard to the man's care.

The granddaughter praised as "lovely" some of the staff who dealt with her grandfather at LRI.

But she claimed others had raised concerns.

The man was considered a choking risk because at one point he could not swallow, his granddaughter said.

But on one visit, she claimed, she and her mother discovered a lump of macaroni cheese stuck at the back of his throat around three hours after he had been given it for lunch.

She claimed her grandfather's charts had showed hospital staff had been to move him "a couple of times" between lunch and their visit that day. Not only did this increase the chance of him choking as it could have caused the food to move, she claimed, but nobody had noticed the stuck food while he was being moved.

There were also occasions where they had to request he be changed as he was "sat in a mess", she claimed. The granddaughter said that if it was an isolated incident, they would have assumed it had just happened. But she claimed it happened multiple times, and, coupled with their other concerns, made the family worry there was "something going horrendously wrong" with his care.

Her grandfather had never worn a beard, the woman added, but she claimed two weeks into his stay, they were having to ask for him to be shaved. She said: "Even now, he's still got a full beard, which, when they were trying to feed him, [food and drink] had seeped into the hairs around his face.

"It's just become like a massive mess. He won't let anybody take care of it because it's sore because it's all clogged up with food."

She added: "It's not nice anyway seeing a family member in hospital poorly, but then when you see this lack of care… I said to my mum at one point, 'We take care of people's animals better than we do our own relatives, really, in hospital'."

Her grandfather, who has Parkinson's Disease, was admitted to the hospital after his health deteriorated, and paramedics called to his house raised concerns about his chest. Scans found he had left-side heart failure and his health had generally deteriorated due to his pre-existing condition.

The granddaughter said he was mostly unconscious at the start of his six-week stay and, in some ways, this was easier than seeing how distressed he became when, towards the end of his stay, he was awake more.

The man was happier after a move to Coalville Community Hospital. Image: Instantstreetview.com

She said: "He was just really tearful. He kept saying, 'It's horrible, it's horrible'. He kept asking family members visiting him to pack his stuff up because he wanted to go home.

"When he sort of regained consciousness – it sounds awful – but it was almost worse than him being unconscious, because he was crying. We had to leave him tearful with promises [of], 'We'll try and get you moved', without knowing how we'd be able to do that."

She said her grandfather had now been moved to Coalville Community Hospital, and that he seemed to be happier there.

The woman said that some of the staff who dealt with her grandfather at LRI, including a ward sister, were "fantastic". Some others involved in his care, she claimed, "just seem to have lost all kind of normal bedside manner".

On one occasion, she claimed, she overheard a member of staff tell another patient who had asked for a cup to go with the water she was bringing round that she "did not have four hands" and that he "was going to have to wait".

The granddaughter said: "You think, 'If you're going to talk to them like that in front of a ward full of visiting relatives, what are you like when we're not here?'.

"It's a shame, because there are so many nurses there who were so lovely, who really went the extra mile for them, and were really, really helpful. But then it's always the bad ones who stick out, isn't it?"

Chief Nurse for UHL Julie Hogg said: "The experience described by the family is not one that any of our patients should have and I offer my sincere apologies, both to the patient and his family. We have received their complaint and are investigating. We will respond directly to the family as soon as possible with our findings and I am happy to meet them in person to discuss their concerns."