Alfred, Nick and Zarove – I agree that there is no one particular cause for this terrible problem.

The Government should make sure that existing assessment procedures and complaint channels work. Improvements need to be made to the current system but I do not believe that reckless and hasty changes will help.

The issue of private companies making a profit out of people’s misery needs to be addressed. I agree with Croft, though, such problems are not restricted to the private sector. Often, staff and patients in the public sector have to contend with an overload of patients and limited resources.

Finally, Zarove, I do not think that you are behind the times when you say that this is a problem of culture. Our attitude towards elderly people should be one of respect. Too often, elderly people are made to feel a nuisance and a burden. A re-emphasis on building up the family unit would help this.

However, sometimes, it is sadly impossible to care for elderly relatives in the family home. Sometimes specialist medical assistance and 24 hour supervision is necessary.

So what is the next step? I believe that an apolitical, independent enquiry and investigation examining care of the elderly across Britain in both the public and private sectors is needed. I agree, Croft, Rights, Risks and Restraints only looks at a small percentage of cases but the results are deeply troubling and hint that such suffering is widespread.

Whilst I appreciate the media giving voice to this issue and highlighting the problems, I do not believe it should be their responsibility to carry out investigations. Parliament needs to take the issue of elderly care far more seriously.

If we’d award contracts not just to the lowest bidder, but also took steps to look into the moral Character of those so employed by said agencies, and followed up with routine inspections of how they execute treatment, then a ;lot of this would not be an issue.

Of course, those who inspect must themselves be morally developed as well, hence why I’d suggest the problem is mainly within ourselves.

We need to encourage people to behave in a more considerate fashion towards each other, and to enforce this in the NHS and other agencies by deliberately looking at peoples moral Character.

The idea that we should separate someones moral Character from their work performance is just nonsense. How people are directly ties into how they perform.

If said agency is run by people who simply want the contracts to build their own bank accounts and who don’t care one wit about the patients they serve, they do not deserve the contract, lowest bidder or not.

My guess is that the problem is caused because the people who award the contracts are in jobs where bonuses are paid if they meet certain financial targets and with little regard for the quality of the service provided. That, and laziness. If you were in a situation like that, why would you worry about anything other than price?

Only having read the media coverage so there may be details better explained I’ve missed but 253 people is a tiny sample size for statistical purposes.

we have bred for 40 or 50 years now a Culture that is indolent, selfish, and greedy, and that puts the pursuit of material gain and immediate pleasure above duty, honour, and loyalty, and respect for others has been replaced by an exaggerated sense of one sown self esteem.

The real problem lies in ourselves, and I quiet agree that more legislation will not fix the problem. The Problem is that we have become rather uncaring as a people, and need to once again learn the lessons form our great Spiritual traditions, namely the Church, whose role in British society historically as a moral voiuce has eroded over time.

The Lessons of Christianity, And other Religious groups, to note, once permeated our culture, and though we never where perfect and always endured some social abuses, generated in us a sort of attitude that let us not take ourselves too seriously and that enabled us to set others needs in a place ahead of our own quiet a bit more often.

Of course today we are told how horrible Religion is and how it leads to division, hatred, and intolerance. I think that rubbish. We are more hateful and divided now than ever before, and far less kind.

The solution to moral problems is moral teaching, and for people to internalise the lessons on how to love one another, and place greater value on service to others than to self gratification.

To this end, I say that what is needed is for us to recover our past values, and not press ahead with new legislation.

They did, after all, have a proven track record of making the British people characteristically polite and considerate at one time.

As I said, never where we perfect nor where all people always kind, but this is the solution, personal responsibility and inner, Spiritual regeneration, on a personal and civil level.