IT HAS come to something when Southampton General Hospital has to rely on volunteers to help feed elderly patients and make sure they are not malnourished when they eventually leave.

Also, that they need a coloured tray to identify patients who cannot feed themselves.

This follows on from doctors having to prescribe water so patients are not left dehydrated.

What on earth is going on up there?

Are nursing staff so busy that they cannot attend to the basic needs of their patients?

I think there is something quite shameful about the working arrangements of the running of a large hospital when it has come to non-nursing volunteers being required to attend to patients’ personal needs.

Are there no longer even students or NVQ assistants?

Stop spending all the time on computers in the nursing station and go out onto the wards and deliver patient care - the way it used to be!

RICHARD A JACOB, Shirley, Southampton.