All I ever wanted was for the NHS to say sorry, but that simple wish turned into a five-year fight for justice

Drumchapel Ho spital clo sed last year. for their blunders it wouldn’t have cost them so much.”

Frances suffered a stroke at the family home in Bearsden, Glasgow, in February 2011.

She was ultimately transferred to Drumchapel Hospital, where she would beg her husband to take her home, telling him she was “scared” to be left there on her own.

Noel said the care she received was far from satisfactory.

“The physiotherapy was first class but the care was anything but,” he said.

“Fra n c e s needed assistance to move around and get to places like the toilet.

“But instead of helping her they would let her soil herself and then mark her medical records as being ‘incontinent’.

“A doctor at Western Infirmary told me to make sure Frances got plenty of water as dehydration was the most common way to get a urinary tract infection.

“Yet almost every day I went in, there was either no water for her to drink or it was left out of reach, leaving her dehydrated.

“That also went for her diet. My wife had coeliac disease, meaning she couldn’t eat anything with gluten in her food. “But that was ignored.” With the NHS unable to supply her meals, Noel was given special permission to cook them instead.

It meant he soon found himself travelling to the hospital four times a day.

By April, the physiotherapist said Frances was well enough to go out for a day with Noel.

“I was ecstatic she was getting better,” added Noel.

But went to pick her up just hours after last seeing her, he found her unconscious in bed with a nurse trying to give her medication.

Noel said: “She was lying there fully clothed with a nurse forcing a capsule into her mouth.

“I said ‘ stop it – she’s not able to swallow it’. It was going to choke her.”

Noel demanded a doctor be called but weekend cover meant there were none on the wards.

Short of resources, it was decided to

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