A hospital at the centre of a storm about its treatment of elderly patients is holding a series of events to mark national Older People's Awareness Week.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was heavily criticised in the summer after an undercover nurse working for the BBC programme Panorama unveiled a catalogue of problems on a ward at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

They included elderly patients left to sit in their own urine, not getting water to drink and not getting the medication they needed.

The trust says things have now improved on the ward and it is regularly monitoring all wards at all of its hospitals.

The awareness week runs from today until Friday and the trust has organised a series of events.

Now the trust is giving older people and their carers the chance to talk with senior nurses about their concerns about going into hospital.

Caroline Davies, senior nurse in practice development, said: "Coming into hospital can be a daunting experience.

"We hope that by holding these drop-in sessions we can allay some of their concerns.

"There's no need to book a slot. Older people can simply come along for an informal chat at any time during the two-hour sessions."

The talks are among a series of events being run by the hospitals as part of the awareness week.

The BBC Panorama programme, Undercover Nurse, which was screened in July, showed harrowing images of a terminally-ill patient in extreme pain because she was not being given regular pain relief.

On another occasion a patient with advanced dementia was left sitting for hours in her chair for the enema she needed.

Panorama sent a trained nurse and a journalist who posed as a cleaner into the Royal Sussex with hidden cameras.

In one scene, the reporter saw an elderly patient looking ill and later discovered the patient had died without anybody noticing.

Another scene showed a patient left without a drip for nine hours.

Secret filming took place mainly in November and December last year but the team returned to the ward in May.

The reporter filmed patients desperate to use the toilet having to wait for lengthy periods while nurses failed to respond to their calls for help.

Her footage also showed nurses eating patients' food in the kitchen while some patients who were unable to feed themselves went hungry.

The trust has now introduced an Older People's Champions scheme in which one staff nurse and one healthcare assistant from each ward are made a champion to help challenge ageism, drive up standards of care for older people and share good practice across the trust.

The champions will each receive regular training throughout the year on issues around the care of older people and will be working closely with the local 60+ Action Group.

Ms Davies said: "Older People's Awareness Week is not only aimed at exploring issues affecting older people within the trust but in society in general.

"We are always keen to improve our standards of care and hope older people and their carers will come along to these events to find out what we are doing to address their needs and to ask any questions they may have."