A councillor has challenged colleagues to visit a hospital unannounced to witness the "soul-destroying" way elderly patients are living.

Former nurse Susan Joy threw down the gauntlet to other members of the ruling Labour group on Brighton and Hove City Council in a letter leaked to The Argus.

Coun Joy went to three wards at Brighton General Hospital as part of her work as a social services assessor for East Sussex County Council. She had also made several previous visits to the hospital.

In her letter, she declared: "Like many visitors and relatives of patients in this hospital, I have frequently come away traumatised and feeling helpless.

"The enormity of the dreadful feelings have, like those of many of my social work colleagues, been buried, simply because imagining how the individual patients must be feeling is too much for me to bear."

Challenging her colleagues to visit the hospital unannounced, she said: "People are often crammed into very small areas.

"Two of the wards I went to had beds so close, the sides of the chair touched beds either side.

"People were sitting in hospital night gowns staring out into space. There was a sadness and desperation in many people's eyes.

"The wards were shabby. The staff, in contrast, looked smart in their uniforms."

There were people who clearly had some level of dementia mixed with some who did not.

She added: "The saddest part for me was observing staff and visitors passing beds and ignoring the face that looked up with some vague expectation of being acknowledged.

"Many people I come across are filled with absolute dread of being admitted to Brighton General because of some of what I have described."

She added there were similar conditions in many wards at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and people there tended to be kept in smaller areas.

Coun Joy said: "I believe this is not simply about resources, though they play a part, or about poor recruitment. This is about how older people are marginalised and treated differently in our society, our city.

"Those who have some health scheme and/or money can avoid admission."

But she added many elderly people in the area had no choice.

Coun Joy said: "I believe there is a real link with serious ageism in our health service and the negative, soul-destroying conditions many people experience in hospital."

She said people were reluctant to complain for fear of being seen to criticise hospital staff who worked hard.

Coun Joy, who said she did not know who had leaked her letter, said: "It is heartbreaking. This is a chronic problem. It is the poor end of the service and there is in-built institutionalism.

"People tend to expect poor treatment when they are old. I feel passionately they should not."

Coun Joy said she would press for the council to carry out an investigation of the old people's wards at the hospital.

She would also like to see many more volunteers visiting the hospital and talking to the patients.

Mark Cannon, general manager of the medical directorship at Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, said if Coun Joy could point to any specific example of inhumane treatment, it would immediately be investigated.

He also invited her on to the older people's services planning group for Brighton and Hove, which he chairs, and said she could join a sub-group looking at general hospital care.

Mr Cannon said: "Everyone wants to improve standards for patients, particularly elderly patients, at Brighton General Hospital. But some of the words she has chosen to describe that are disappointing."

In the last year, the trust has spent £400,000 on improvements to wards at the hospital, including eradicating mixed-sex wards and redecoration.

Another £3 million will be spent in a three-year programme on completely renovating the six older people's wards at the hospital so most patients will be in four-bed, en suite units with back-up equipment available. There will be many other amenities added to help rehabilitation.

Mr Cannon said this would make a huge difference to the physical environment of the old building.

He added: "We are constantly looking at delivery of care, although there is always room for improvement.

"We always get plaudits, which we have in thick files, from people who write about the excellent care and treatment they have received."

Mr Cannon said one reason beds were close together was that hospital staff had to find space for elderly people who did not need further treatment but had nowhere else to go.

He said one reason for this was that Brighton and Hove Council was paying less money than many nursing homes felt was justified to care for discharged patients.

He added: "We want to improve the quality of service but need to look at it in terms of what the system as a whole has to offer."