A CHEPSTOW woman this week slammed the state of the Royal Gwent Hospital - citing walls spattered with blood amongst a catalogue of shocking observations.

Karen Collier, of Maple Close, Bulwark, was admitted on November 10 after collapsing at home. Soon, she wished the ambulance had taken her anywhere but Newport. This is her story:

"The paramedics were fantastic, and the ambulance didn't take long to turn up - but that's where the good experience ended I'm afraid," said Karen, 49.

"After spending five days in the Gwent, I was relieved to come back to the cleaner environment of my home. The late Aneurin Bevan (founder of the NHS) would have turned in his grave if he could see the state of decline in the service he so proudly introduced to us in 1946. The staff in A & E were excellent but on the wards it was a far different story.

"Having several friends working in various departments of the RGH, I have heard all their fears and horror stories and now I fully understand their concerns about germs, filth and MRSA transmissions.

"The lockers and observational equipment were smothered in dirt, the walls splattered with blood and other stains and the doors covered in dirty smears. Even the windows were filthy.

"The cleaners came round with wet-wipes and j-cloths to give a quick lick, literally, over the surfaces but you could see the dirt still remained.

"There was no sign of any proper hygiene anywhere. The toilets were disgustingly filthy with excrement ground into the floor. The base of the taps were soiled with dirt from previous users and nobody dared to use the bath or shower which should have been scrapped a long time ago. "The food was appalling, always cold, tasted vile and smelt and looked like vomit, you wouldn't give it to a dog. The water jugs and cups weren't even clean. The doctor couldn't dispute my comments, all he could do was nod because he knew my observations were correct.

"The nurses no longer have any responsibility to care for their patients. I had two elderly ladies beside me and their buzzers were ignored as nurses refused to come to their aid. I was forever walking up to the nurses' station to ask them to come to their assistance. One patient kept calling me 'nurse' because I was the only one to take any notice.

"One lady was from Brookside, Caldicot, and I thought she should be better off there with having no warden at home, but I firmly believe she would be better off at Brookside. It didn't take us long to realise that if any of us were to have a fit or a heart attack, nobody would bother to tend to us, we had a better chance of ending up in the hospital mortuary."

"On leaving the ward, we came down in the lift only to be joined by a surgeon whose hands were covered in blood and other fluids and he was pressing the buttons on the control panel. There are bottles of gel everywhere and yet it seems to have the opposite effect in that medical staff use it as a license to abuse the control of infection and touch anything and everything without even considering washing their hands. It makes BBC's Casualty look like a five-star cruise ship."

A spokesman for the Royal Gwent said: "I thank the Free Press for bringing these allegations to our attention. They are serious allegations and are not ones which we can ignore. A full investigation of ward procedures will be carried and we offer our sincere apologies to Mrs Collier. I have to say that some of the problems she encountered seem far-fetched but I make clear I do not think she has made things up so, as I said earlier, an investigation will be carried out."