PSYCHIATRIC care at the Royal Oldham Hospital has been labelled "atrocious" by the angry fiancee of a man who died there.

And the mother of the man, 34-year-old David Nash, has also told how she called the Royal Oldham to enquire about her son’s health, only to hear over the telephone that he was dead.

This week, the family and friends of Mr Nash have thrown a spotlight on psychiatric care at the hospital after waiting for four years to get to the truth.

David was well known in the borough as an excellent snooker player and regular at Hillbillies Snooker and Pool Bar, in Huddersfield Road.

He suffered from schizophrenia and had received treatment for years, but a jury at an inquest at Oldham Magistrates’ Court heard that he was engaged to be married and hid his symptoms from all but his closest family.

His mum, Barbara Nash, said of her son: "He had tried everything to get better. He was so brave."

But in July, 2004, David told her that he wanted to kill himself and she took him to the Royal Oldham.

Barbara said: "They said there was no room and sent him home. He’d got to rock bottom and was getting paranoid."

Later that night David broke down and was taken back to hospital. He was then admitted to the private Cheadle Royal Hospital until a room was free in Oldham.

During his four-day stay in Cheadle his mum said David’s condition improved, and he was then readmitted to a room in Oldham on August 4.

Barbara said: "It was horrific. It was absolutely filthy – it wasn’t a room for someone with an illness like his.

"He just sat on the bed and wouldn’t eat. Nobody was taking any notice of him."

Fiancee Julie Dawson said outside the court: "Conditions were atrocious. There were systematic failures."

On the night of August 8, David phoned home saying he wanted to leave.

Barbara said: "We wouldn’t let him because we were frightened he would do something to himself.

"I thought that at least he was being watched by professionals

"The next day I rang up after breakfast and said, ‘How is David?’ A doctor came on and said, ‘I’ve got to tell you that at 1am David killed himself’.

"I screamed, Julie collapsed. That picture will stay in my mind forever."

David had hung himself in his room on the Southside Ward of the psychiatric department.

Mr Sharples, representing Pennine Care Trust, which runs the Royal Oldham, said: "On behalf of the hospital, clearly the way your son’s death was communicated to you was not acceptable."

Questions were also asked about whether it was appropriate for David to be in a disabled person’s room, which contained hand rails that could have been used as ligature points.

Mental health nurse David Platt said: "If we had no disabled people on the ward we would use every room available to us."

He added that it was virtually impossible to remove all ligature points from any room.

Records of suicide risk assessments and suicide watch checks were also found to be incomplete. The coroner, Simon Nelson, described them as "haphazard".

Nurse Platt said: "It wasn’t unusual for them not to be properly scored because of the pressures of the job. We had a shortage of staff at the time."

The coroner said that since David’s death he was satisfied that the hospital trust had adjusted its policy with records.

Friend Michael Wild, a professional snooker player, said outside the hearing that David was ‘naturally gifted’ and Hillbillies snooker club had dedicated a plaque to his memory on his favourite table.

Michael Webb, who was to be David’s best man at his wedding to Julie Dawson, added: "You couldn’t meet a nicer bloke.

"He was down to earth and always cracking jokes."

The inquest was continuing as the Advertiser went to press.