Nurse charged after elderly man smothered

A nurse who allegedly tried to suffocate an elderly patient with a pillow at a southwest Sydney hospital has faced court and will remain behind bars on attempted murder charges.

Timothy Owen, 50, did not apply for bail and it was formally refused after he was charged with attempting to strangle and suffocate with intent to murder and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Detectives were called to a Bankstown hospital on Thursday after Owen allegedly assaulted an 80-year-old man.

Police allege Owen, a registered nurse, pushed a pillow down on the face of his patient and forcibly held him down before another nurse intervened.

"It's a violent incident whereby the 80-year-old man was fairly vulnerable, he was in bed, bedridden," Detective Superintendent Murray Reynolds told reporters on Friday.

He said the alleged victim, who had been at the hospital for about a month, was in a stable condition.

Owen's matter is next scheduled for Burwood Local Court on August 26.