An 86-year-old man had to spend the night in a shower room at the Saint John Regional Hospital in the midst of its continuing bed shortage.

Claude Carter, who has dementia, was being monitored at the hospital for unexpected weight-loss when he was moved to a shower room the night before he was expected to be released, his daughter-in-law Nancy Carter told CBC News Tuesday.

Carter said it was ridiculous to place a man who was already scared and confused in a room that didn't even have a window.

"If people come to visit you'd have to stand in the hall. There's no room for nothing," Carter said. "His bed is there and his table … You couldn't put the head of his bed up."

Dora Nicinski, CEO of the Atlantic Health Sciences Corp., has confirmed that the 524-bed hospital is struggling with a shortage of space as it operates at a 104 per cent patient occupancy rate. Some patients have been moved to alternate areas, she said.

Claude Carter's daughter, Louanne Nason, said she understands the hospital is struggling with its patient occupancy rate but the family still feels the small room was no place for a senior.

"Put me in there, that's fine, but not someone that has dementia," Nason said. "To me that would be very stressful to him."

The hospital doesn't have any plans to dismantle the substitute rooms, said Nancy Savage, vice-president of patient programs with the health authority.

The rooms may not be ideal but they are safe and private, Savage said.

Last week a woman told CBC News that when her granddaughter went to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy, they found adult patients were being placed in the pediatric ward.

For now the hospital staff have to make the best of the space that is available, Nicinski said.

She said the bed shortage will improve when a new nursing home opens in nearby Quispamsis. Officials at the Kings Way Care Centre estimate it will be open in about three weeks.