A SEVERELY disabled Bolton grandmother asked for extra blankets to keep warm in hospital - and was given a pair of patterned curtains.

It happened at Salford's Hope Hospital as 67-year-old Louise Morton was having one of her regular treatments for crippling Raynaud's Disease.

The circulation disorder makes Mrs Morton, of Trentham Avenue, Farnworth, feel intensely cold.

She says she was stunned when she was given a pair of thin curtains by the nurses after she had asked for extra blankets to add to two she had already been given for her hospital bed.

Mrs Morton was diagnosed with the disease in 1990. She lost her lower left leg and two fingers as ulcers and gangrene set in as a result of the circulation problem. Because of her condition she is in and out of hospital on a regular basis.

She says she cannot sleep between sheets because cotton next to skin makes her feel so cold.

She said that when she asked for more blankets the nurses scoured other wards for some. But when they were unable to find any, they returned with the curtains, said Mrs Morton.

"I couldn't believe it. I thought they were joking at first but they were serious. It wasn't the nurses' fault, they were very apologetic. But it shocked me that this was what the NHS had been reduced to."

She claims she spent a full weekend lying between the curtains with a blanket above and one below.

And she claims that she was told it was not an isolated incident. She says she was told that there were no clean blankets due to cuts in the laundry service over the weekend.

"Over the seven years that I've been in and out of hospital I've noticed how it's being run down. It's as though they are returning to the workhouse days."

On an earlier stay at Hope Hospital, Mrs Morton claims, the ladies' toilets on the ward were shut for refurbishment and 30 men and women on the ward had to share the two male toilets. "On top of that builders were drilling holes in the walls to fit smoke alarms and the ward was covered in dust," she said.

Hope Hospital officials promised to investigate when the BEN contacted them on Monday and again yesterday but had not responded when our deadline arrived today.

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