The family of a pensioner left with a black eye and a bitten wrist during a hospital stay have vowed to keep him at home in future – blaming the situation on a shortage of staff.

Brendan Phelan, 80, was found injured at Airedale General Hospital when his family arrived to take him out for his 80th birthday on Sunday.

Nursing staff said the incident happened two days before, but his family say they had not been informed.

The matter is now under investigation by health chiefs.

The family’s complaint of staffing shortages comes as nursing leaders have issued an unprecedented warning that patient care starts to become unsafe on wards where each registered nurse is looking after more than eight patients.

And, according to the Safe Staffing Alliance, made up of senior expert nurses, this is a regular occurrence in many hospitals.

Mr Phelan had spent eight weeks at Airedale Hospital after suffering a stroke and dementia, His daughter-in-law, Pam Phelan, of Thomas Street, Haworth, said: “He was on the mental health ward, ward 24, because of his dementia and there just was not enough staff.

“Dementia is an issue and it has been established he is not aggressive unless someone invades his personal space so he was put into a room on his own.

“Then apparently there was someone else in the room and he had an altercation with another patient on Friday, but we only found out Sunday when we went to pick him up.

“No-one bothered to notify us. Staff are stretched and they can’t watch patients.

“I am not letting him come back to hospital. He is not going anywhere he can be beaten up, if that is what is going to happen in the hospital ward, I am not taking him there.

“Staff at Airedale have done the best to their ability with the resources and staff, but they are stretched to a ridiculous limit.

“He was originally on ward five where he was supposed to be receiving 24-hour care, and the day after he was admitted he had an unwitnessed fall. I don’t blame the staff, I blame a lack of resources.

“I will be lodging an official complaint through the Patient Advice and Liaison Service.”

Allison Bingham, deputy director of inpatient services at Bradford District Care Trust which was responsible for Mr Phelan’s care, said: “We take the responsibility for the safety and well-being of our patients extremely seriously.

“If ever an incident happens on our wards we always investigate in line with our policies and procedures.

“We are working with the family regarding their concerns. We cannot comment further due to patient confidentiality.”

The Safe Staffing Alliance says the one-to-eight ratio is based on hard evidence and it has issued new recommendations that ‘under no circumstances’ should staffing be allowed to fall to below that level.

A spokesman for Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Airedale Hospital, said it had a nurse to patient ratio of between one to to seven and one to to eight according to speciality.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital, was not able to provide details of its nurse to patient ratios to the Telegraph & Argus yesterday.