ELDERLY patients are receiving horrifically poor care due to chronic understaffing in the NHS, a probe by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found yesterday.

Some elderly patients have been asked to wear adult nappies because no staff were available to help them use a commode or bedpan.

Other problems include patients who are unable to eat unaided being left without a meal because there were no staff to feed them and workers having no time to pass on relatives’ messages to patients.