I cleaned while he lay dying

She said conditions at Worthing Hospital were so bad she:

* Took bleach and Dettol with her and scrubbed the room "from top to bottom".

* Lined the windowsills with newspapers and towels to stop the rain and wind whistling through the room.

* Reported dried urine and "marks" on the walls around the toilet.

* Became ill, along with another relative, after catching a hospital bug. Her husband also caught it.

In a letter to the Worthing Herald, the woman, who did not want to be named, said her husband was admitted to the hospital at the end of January after being diagnosed with cancer. Doctors told her he had been responding to chemotherapy treatment and he was released from hospital but had to be re-admitted again because of a bug he had caught during his original stay.

"My husband did not recover," she writes. "I know he had cancer, but they said he was responding to treatement and do not know why he went down so quick. I do." The woman said: "He was in a ward with six people. When I left, the sister came to see him and told him he was going to start chemotherapy the next day and if any of his visitors had a cold they must stay home, to which my husband replied there were six in the ward and four had colds.

"So, she then put my husband into a separate room. When I arrived the next day I found the room was dirty, wind whistling through the windows and his toilet had dried urine on the floor and smelled foul. There was mess on the walls. I had to leave my husband in this room until the next day when I arrived with a bottle of bleach, disinfectant, Dettol wipes and Dettol spray and I cleaned that room from top to bottom but it was too late. My husband had caught this bug.

"Then they said he was fit enough to come home as it was safer than in hospital but the bug had taken hold and he had to be admitted again.This time he was put in another separate room which was again very dirty and once again I cleaned. One afternoon the tea lady came in with a feather duster and dusted the window over the door and the dust went everywhere and in the bed of a dying man. The wind was whistling in through closed windows and also the rain. I had to put either towels or newspapers along the windowsills.Once every patient in the ward went down with this bug I also got it and was very ill for 48 hours and my brother-in-law was in bed for four days."

Despite pleas from the Herald, the woman was adamant she did not want her husband's details passed on to the hospital so they could investigate further.

Pam Lelliott, communications manager for Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "It is always very sad to read a story like this but as we have not been given the patient's name we have no way of checking what is being said.

"Had the family complained last January we would have carried out a thorough investigation and given a full response. We take cleanliness very seriously and actively encourage patients and relatives to raise issues of concern with the ward sister.

"This year we are spending over 200,000 on window replacement in the West wing as we have been concerned about the condition. Even though the building is only 35 years old the windows are in a poor condition, needing constant repair. We would welcome an opportunity to speak to the family about this."