A wall inside a Welsh hospital has been left to rot over the space of a year, according to one patient.
The wall, which is found inside St Woolos Hospital, Newport , was spotted by a patient who's been visiting the site for regular appointments over the last year.
Phil Watkins, 47, from Pontypool, visits the hospital on a monthly basis to see consultants, but said he rarely goes that far into the hopsital.
On this occasion he went in further than usual, and recalled seeing the wall a year previously, though it had deteriorated a lot since then.
Describing the damage, Mr Watkins said: "The wall is wet, there is some mould but mainly water damage. The wall is incredibly wet and the plaster has fallen off in most places, it looks bad."
He said: "It was there last year but not as bad. I thought that the hospital trust would have sorted out the problem, but sadly not. In fact it’s got a lot worse. Surely nurses and other medical professionals would have reported this as a matter of health and safety to patients and users of the hospital.
"I can’t fault the medical teams at the hospital, they do their level best in providing medical care with the budgets they receive."
Mr Watkins, who is full of praise for the medical staff, is worried that the new Grange hospital, that's being built in Cwmbran, might be taking away resources for this one.
He said: "The hospital still has many uses and shouldn’t be allowed to be left in a run-down state. It’s sad to see it, I would expect to see that state in a third world hospital, but not our hospital that serves thousands of patients every year. It’s on the main concourse between two hospital blocks, just before the bridge.
"It’s outrageous to think that people walk past and ignore it, the problem won’t go away, it will get worse. What could have cost a few thousand pounds of damage could well now be more than a hundred thousand pounds. It makes no sense at all. Whoever’s responsible for this should hang their head in shame and be held accountable for it."
A spokesman for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “We recognise some of our current estate, particularly some of our older buildings, are not of the standard we would expect or want for our patients. A key feature of our current estates plan is looking into these areas and to seek to prioritise the work that is required.
"St Woolos Hospital is of particular concern and we are looking into this area as a matter of priority, whilst we also take forward our plans for the construction of The Grange University Hospital in line with the changes to our estate as part of our Clinical Futures Programme to transform health services in Gwent.”
