The scenes on BBC’s Panorama programme last night beggar belief. The government is in confusion and the public are outraged. The Care Quality Commission clearly is not doing its job. According to an anonymous insider it no longer even tries. It just ticks boxes as it monitors rather than inspects. This useless body is about to be given new responsibilities to monitor GP Commissioning.
There will never be an end to abuse, human cruelty and exploitation. The responsibility of government is to have in place the means to root out such things before harm is done wherever they happen, but especially in places which care for the vulnerable, paid for by taxpayers. That these special people were so cruelly abused is appalling and a blot upon any civilised community to the point where we all should feel ashamed today. But it gets worse. Cries for help were ignored and none of the relevant authorities would listen to a responsible and senior whistle blower. The BBC did. But for our national broadcaster, nothing would have been done. This is the root of this scandal. Our vast quango state is an expensive, dysfunctional mess, which permits much harm and does little good.
There is a lot of work to be done. Moreover the whole concept of outsourcing welfare functions to companies whose purpose is to make money is beginning to look seriously flawed. Whilst one is shown to be running a den of abuse (are there others?) another cannot pay its rent and appears to be going bust, leaving the frail and elderly with an uncertain future. This is all not good enough. It may be also the tip of a very nasty iceberg.