OVER the past 10 years, I have had to attend the Royal Gwent hospital with family members. It’s a nightmare to park – a dirty, pigeon-infested place.

I stood by a stretcher for seven hours with the ambulance crew because the ambulance only had one stretcher! I asked why there weren’t spare stretchers and was told the ambulances were coach built and the people upstairs didn’t have the intelligence to have them all built the same so stretchers could interchange.

In the ward, when finally a bed was available, there were only two light bulbs, so when the doctor came around, the nurse had to transfer a bulb from bed to bed. When it came to checking a person’s body, two machines had to be used because there were faults on each machine, so a nurse had to drag both around. I asked why the hospital doesn’t have a person to repair them. They have, but the hospital can’t afford the parts!

For three days, a toilet was overflowing from a burst pipe. It had been reported. One of the nurses was so angry over this. I overheard her shouting down the phone about it.

Nurses and doctors shouldn’t have to work in such poor conditions. We have a modern, clean, easily accessible hospital in Ystrad Mynach, yet the powers that be keep giving the Royal Gwent more modern technology. Why isn’t the investment coming to Ystrad and why aren’t this area’s councillors screaming out to get It?

M E Peart, Beechcroft, Blackwood