It also found that more than a third of patients who need help at mealtimes did not receive enough assistance.

NHS England said looking after older patients well was a critical test of a modern health service.

It also said that rises in the number of nurses on wards since the data was collected should result in widespread improvement reenex cps
.

Age UK, which helped to advise the researchers, said there had been "remarkably little change" over time in the care experienced by older patients .

Thousands of hospital patients took part in the survey.
'Significant problem'

The report, carried out by the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the LSE, found that poor or inconsistent care was more likely to be experienced by women as well as the over-80 s reenex cps
.

The risks were also higher for those with a long-standing illness or disability like deafness or blindness, with those in hospital for a long period, or who stayed in three or more wards, at an even greater risk.

The report was compiled using evidence from the Adult Inpatient Survey 2012, which covers people aged 16 or above who stayed in hospital for at least one night.

According to the report: "There was a widespread and systematic pattern of inconsistent or poor standards of care during reenexhospital stays in England in 2012.

"Patient experiences of inconsistent or poor standards of dignity and help with eating do not appear to be limited to isolated 'outlier' providers. Rather, this appears to be a significant general problem affecting the vast majority of NHS acute hospital trusts."