Agency staff are under fire from a pensioners' group after a blind 94-year-old was humiliated at Charing Cross Hospital.

Great-grandmother Lilian Jordan (pictured) had been admitted to Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, after suspected pneumonia and two falls at home in one day.

When the Shepherd's Bush pensioner asked to go to the lavatory on Monday night, Febryary 12, she claims she was given an incontinence pad by an agency nurse and told to got to the toilet in the bed.

Her daughter, Sue McPherson, who visited her on the following Wednesday said: "It's humiliating. She had to do this and in the morning the day nurse asked what on earth had happened.

"Mum explained. She had to be washed down and the bed sheets changed."

Days before, the grandmother-of-four said she had been told off by an agency nurse on Christmas Eve when she asked for help getting out of bed to go to the toilet.

Mrs McPherson said that the nurse had exclaimed: 'Don't you realise it's 2am?'

Chairwoman of Hammersmith and Fulham Pensioner's Forum, Phyllis Perlin, 93, said: "I don't agree with or believe in agency staff. The ordinary nurses' attitude means they help more, but for agency staff it's just a job."

She said that her experience of permanent hospital staff is good, but added that she thinks all nurses should be employed by hospitals not agencies.

Mrs McPherson added: "There are people with Alzheimer's in there and they can't speak up for themselves. I think it's disgraceful.

"My heart breaks for these sick and vulnerable people who should be treated with the respect and dignity that we would want for ourselves."

A hospital spokeswoman said: "Imperial Heathcare Trust is taking the privacy and dignity issues raised by Ms McPherson extremely seriously.

"The trust is investigating the allegations made and has invited Ms McPherson to meet with hospital representatives to discuss her concerns relating to her mother's care."

Mrs Jordan was also let down last month after a stay in Hammersmith Hospital in Du Cane Road, Shepherd's Bush. She claims she was discharged on December 17 and her daughter was told that social workers would make sure her mum was looked after at home that evening.

But the next day, the pensioner's next-door neighbour found the 94-year-old retired housekeeper still in the armchair she had spent the night in, after no care workers had turned up.

"It's disgusting that no-one came to put her back to bed," said her daughter.

A H&F Council spokeswoman said: "We always endeavour to deliver the highest standards of care to our elderly and vulnerable residents and, obviously, if any resident or their family has concerns, we take them very seriously. We are currently looking into the circumstances surrounding Mrs Jordan's case."