A boatman who survived for more than an hour in the freezing River Thames is the latest patient to complain about the standard of care at an Oxford hospital.

Roy Bream, 56, was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital after being dragged three miles in floodwater by his drifting boat. He stayed afloat by clinging to a boat line.

Mr Bream, who cannot swim, was pulled out of the Thames near Day's Lock, Little Wittenham, by a fire service boat.

Mr Bream said he was grateful to fire officers involved in the river search and paramedics for saving his life, but he has made a formal complaint about his treatment at the hospital.

After arriving at the hospital's casualty department suffering from hypothermia, Mr Bream said he was left to wait in wet blankets for 20 minutes before being seen by a doctor.

Mr Bream's wife, Kathleen, said her husband was made to wait for a warm drink, while his requests for a bottle to urinate in were ignored.

Mrs Bream said she arrived at the hospital the following morning to find her husband in great distress. She added: "He had not been offered anything throughout the night - no fluid, no pain relief, even though he was unable to get out of bed."

Soon afterwards Mr Bream, of Membury Way, Grove, was moved to a corridor for two hours to free the cubicle for another patient.

With no beds apparently available, his increasingly anxious wife remembered her husband's private healthcare membership, but a consultant said there were no beds, either NHS or private, available and sent him home.

Mr Bream said: "I was later told that I had suspected renal failure, which makes it even more difficult to understand why I was offered no drink."

A spokesman for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We take complaints seriously and will look into this case." She said Mr Bream, admitted on February 14, entered casualty during a particularly high pressure week for staff and added a new volunteer scheme to help keep waiting patients comfortable should help the situation.