A 90-year-old retired nurse suffering severe pain and sickness waited 31 hours in casualty at an Oxford hospital.

Edith Charles's daughter, Wendy Wells, has complained to NHS managers about her mother's treatment. Mrs Charles, a widow, arrived at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Headington at 9.30am on Monday, February 12, after the warden at her Didcot sheltered accommodation called for an ambulance. She was not admitted to a ward until 4.30pm the next day.

Mrs Wells said problems occurred because staff thought Mrs Charles had discharged herself meaning doctors did not examine her until 8pm. They also registered her mother as "Mrs Childs", delaying her admission while managers tried to identify her. Mrs Wells said: "Somehow we have all got to do something to highlight what is going on. The staff cannot cope with the volumes of patients coming in from all directions, all the time."

Mrs Charles is now recovering from surgery after doctors found heavy scarring from a previous appendix operation was restricting her bowel. During the pensioner's wait in the casualty department, Mrs Wells claimed a lack of cubicles forced nurses to adjust her mother's newly-fitted catheter in the corridor. And despite being prescribed morphine, staff were so busy they did not have time to administer the pain-relieving drug.

Mrs Wells, 63, of Yeftly Drive, Sandford-on-Thames, said: "The nurses were literally running while working. It took them nearly two hours to respond to my repeated requests for morphine for my mother. "The corridor affords no privacy to patients who subsequently suffer the humiliation of being examined and treated in full public view. My mother was given a catheter, which needed to be adjusted. The screen provided little privacy. Similarly, another patient nearby was forced to give a urine sample in full view of other patients."

Casualty was also dirty, according to Mrs Wells. During the night her mother, a former nurse at the Park Hospital, Headington, was placed in a cubicle where allegedly the floor was dirty, there was dried blood on the bed frame and dirty crockery in the sink. Mrs Wells said: "The room was generally not clean to the point of being unhygienic. I pointed this out to the nurse, she apologised and said there weren't enough cleaners."

An Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman said the hospital's casualty unit had been under "a great deal of pressure" for the last fortnight. She said: "There are occasions when patients have to wait for tests or while their condition is monitored. However, there have also been times recently when patients have not been moved as quickly as we or they would like into hospital beds. We are working across the system to try to ease this situation. When accident and emergency is under pressure in this way, it can be more difficult to keep the patient areas clean and tidy. We are currently working hard to improve the standard of cleanliness across the hospital and to ensure that patients are treated in a pleasant environment.

"We take complaints from patients very seriously and will be investigating this complaint as matter of urgency. In the meantime, we can only apologise to the patient and to her family for what they experienced."