Britain to monitor hospitals more closely

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LONDON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Britain's health secretary vowed to tighten up the monitoring of hospitals after appalling conditions were reported at a facility in Redditch, England.

Jeremy Hunt said Saturday he was "appalled" at the ordeals patients at Alexandra Hospital underwent in recent years, including the death of a patient who by starvation.

"I am disgusted and appalled to read these accounts of what patients and their relatives went through," Hunt said. "I know that most National Health Service staff — including many at the Alexandra Hospital — will be shocked to hear these stories. I want to support them in making sure these awful experiences are not repeated."

Administrators at Alexandra began writing letters to the families of 38 patients who were part of a massive legal action over allegations of neglect, abuse and outright torment of patients by hospital staff, The Sunday Telegraph said.

The situation prompted Prince Charles to last week write an appeal to NHS employees in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine urging them to listen to their patients and restore "a climate of care and compassion" at hospitals and other institutions.