Hospital staff have been criticised for losing a seriously ill patient's false teeth.

Bedridden Joan Gwynne-Smith, 86, is having difficulty eating since her dentures went missing.

Her family has criticised the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, where she has been treated for three weeks, saying staff had a "couldn't care less" attitude.

The complaint has again raised the issue of poor care of the elderly at the hospital.

Mrs Gwynne-Smith's son Michael, of Woodbourne Avenue, Brighton, said: "No one seemed bothered about it until I went up there and asked what was going on.

"When I told them her teeth were lost they really weren't interested and shrugged their shoulders as if to say what do you want me to do about it?' "Finally I got to speak to the floor manager and she got people to check the place, search the laundry bags and other places but it was too late."

Mrs Gwynne-Smith, a widow and former nurse from Brighton, is in hospital with a bone marrow disorder.

The condition means she has low immunity and is staying in a room off Bristol ward to minimise the risk of her catching an infection.

She cannot walk and it would have been almost impossible for her to lose the dentures herself.

Mr Gwynne-Smith said: "If we want it sorted out, I have to find a dentist who's willing to go to the hospital and then I have to pay for some new teeth, which the hospital might think about reimbursing me for.

"The dentist would have to go up there about three or four times and, with the cost of making the dentures, it will work out very expensive.

"I'm so cheesed off about this."

Staff have lost her top and bottom sets of dentures, as well as half her spare set.

Mr Gwynne-Smith added: "She can't eat properly because she has no teeth. They tried to give her pie but the crust on it was so thick you could have built a wall with it, so now they are giving her food like cottage pie, which is easier to eat."

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex, said it would make sure Mrs Gwynne-Smith got replacement dentures.

She said: "We are very sorry and will reimburse the cost.

"We will do everything we can to solve the situation and get Mrs Gwynne-Smith a new set of teeth."

She said the lead nurse would try to get a dentist to Mrs Gwynne-Smith.

Sophie Davison, of Help the Aged, said: "Older people shouldn't expect to be burdened with the worry and humiliation of undignified situations such as this."

The hospital has come under fire before for lapses in its care of the elderly.

In 2005, Panorama carried out an undercover investigation at the Royal Sussex County.

Margaret Haywood, a nurse with more than 20 years' experience, went undercover for the programme wearing a hidden camera.

The programme showed staff were not updating care plans and charts, patients were being shouted at and a cancer patient was left to die on her own.

The NHS trust launched an investigation immediately afterwards.