LONDON - Hospitals face surprise spot checks by inspectors where there are suspicions they are failing to provide adequate care for elderly patients, the national healthcare watchdog said on Thursday.

The Healthcare Commission said in a report it wanted patients, carers and charities like Age Concern to come forward when there were worries about a particular ward or hospital.

The report comes after Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised a more personal standard of care for the elderly in his keynote speech to the Labour party conference in Bournemouth.

The Commission said it had visited 23 National Health Service hospitals and found only five that met all its dignity in care standards.

In many cases this was because hospitals were unable to provide at all times single sex wards including single sex toilet and washing facilities.

Other failings were identified in the training of staff, patient privacy and help with eating.

National survey data studied for the report showed that nearly a quarter of elderly patients were put on mixed wards, despite government efforts to abolish the practice.

The watchdog said that nationally only 55 percent of older people felt as involved in their care as much as they wanted.

Some 94 percent said they were never asked about their views on their care while in hospital.

"There is a critical challenge to ensure that all older people are treated with dignity all of the time," said Healthcare Commission Chief Executive Anna Walker.

"It is absolutely key to providing the kind of personalised care that the Prime Minister was talking about in Bournemouth this week.

"Trusts should also know that where there is evidence that the right care is not being provided consistently, we will use all our powers of assessment and inspection," she added.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said older patients especially feared going into hospital because of a lack of privacy.

"There can be no excuse for not having curtains around beds in wards or locks in hospital toilets," he said.

Social Care Minister Ivan Lewis said the numbers of mixed wards were at a historic low but that more needed to be done.

He told BBC radio that NHS managers had been told to make patient privacy and dignity a top priority.

"The health service has improved clinically beyond any comparison to the state it was 10 years ago. But the fact is that too many patients ... are not being treated as individuals," he said.

"We should have a zero tolerance of indignity in the way we treat older people in our care system and our society."