A deaf man from Winchmore Hill is “deeply offended” after a hospital labelled him ‘deaf and dumb’ while he stayed there for surgery.

Christopher Drew, 23, of Maxim Road, noticed the insult in his hospital file as he recovered from knee surgery at Chase Farm Hospital on March 20.

The incident came at the end of a visit in which he was made to wait for nine hours before being operated on after a shortage of beds, was only spoken to five times and had his belongings removed from him by nurses.

He said: “We are in the year 2012, and my file refers to me as dumb? Deaf people used to be referred to as ‘deaf and dumb’ – a really quite offensive term which has rightly been stopped.

“I am deeply offended. What makes it worse is that I have a decent level of hearing and speech.

“So if staff were avoiding me, which seems to be true given I was spoken to less than five times in fourteen hours, then actually how sad, considering they could have spoken to me without much effort at all.”

Mr Drew is seeking an apology from staff for the way he was treated and the outdated term they used to describe him.

In a statement, Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Trust said: “The trust is sorry to hear of Mr Drew's concerns about the way he was treated. “One of our fundamental principles is to treat patients with dignity and respect.

“Mr Drew's complaint is currently being investigated through the formal complaints procedure and we will be in touch with him as soon as we have completed our investigation.”