A woman is suing South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust for neglect after a string of complaints were upheld.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, complained four times to the the trust after her husband was admitted to Springfield Hospital from 2009 to 2011.

His family were so disgusted by the standard of care they are now paying for him to be treated privately.

His wife saw nurses smoking inside and witnessed a nurse threaten to give a patient an injection if he did not go to his room.

On another occasion, a nurse refused to get medication from the out-of-hours pharmacist for her husband's angina and she was forced to drive two hours to find somewhere else selling it.

She later found out the hospital was in breach for allowing her to bring in drugs for a patient from outside.

In October 2010 she said her husband banged his head but nobody came to treat him.

She also saw cockroaches covering the floor of Jupiter Ward.

The complaints have all been upheld and she is now seeking to sue the trust for neglect of care.

She said: "I saw nurses threatening injections if patients did not go in their rooms. I could not walk away.

"The image sticks with me and it is harrowing - I wanted to say how would you feel? The experience was so bad we now have had to go private.

"My husband has me to help him, but how many people have nobody?"

A spokesperson for the trust said a full investigation has been carried out by the director of nursing and operations.

She said: "The Trust has been in regular contact about their complaints in relation to care at Springfield Hospital.

"The chief executive and the director of nursing and operations have met to discuss the issues raised and a full investigation has been carried out by the director of nursing and operations.

"Where appropriate, action has been taken to address the issues raised.

"Where the trust’s procedures were not followed, for example, in relation to accessing medication from the on-call pharmacist outside normal working hours, this has been pursued with the individual members of staff to ensure that this does not reoccur."