CARE Quality Commission officials should dog every step taken by Allied Healthcare Swindon until such time as the firm has proven itself fit for purpose.

Should Allied Healthcare Swindon put so much as a toe out of line, it should be prevented from having any further contact with clients.

If this spells doom for the organisation, so be it. The stakes in cases such as this are too high for risks to be taken.

What every one of Allied Healthcare Swindon’s clients has in common is vulnerability.

For the organisation to be branded unsafe, unresponsive and poorly led is therefore horrifying and extremely concerning.

Although certain improvements have been noted by the CQC, it is disgraceful that such issues were permitted to arise in the first place.

Among the failings the inspectors highlighted, for example, are failures to consistently report incidents under its watch, poor record keeping regularly missed home visits and poor management of patients’ medicine.

In addition, staff have described their working conditions as nightmarish, with one saying: “You can’t catch up without compromising the client.”

Any one of these inadequacies represents a wholly unacceptable potential for disaster.

The overall picture painted by the inspectors is not one of frontline staff ineptitude but rather one of dreadfully swollen workloads, and bosses either unaware of or indifferent toward those who suffer under a slapdash regime.

Whatever the truth of the causes, the effects are an unforgivable disgrace and heads should roll.

Allied Healthcare Swindon has so far failed to offer any public explanation of its conduct. Until it does, it should not be surprised if people begin to ask very carefully whether they want such an organisation ‘caring’ for their loved ones.