In response to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme ‘Bupa Care Homes Undercover’ (broadcast 8pm, Monday 19 June), Simon Bottery, Director of Policy at Independent Age, the older people’s charity said:
"Reports in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme on care homes suggest that while we may have become better at detecting poor care homes we are still woefully bad at improving them once they are found. Despite a number of inspections, one of the homes in the Dispatches programme has received poor CQC ratings for nearly two years. The CQC and local authorities are reluctant to close homes because of the upheaval and distress it causes to residents and their families so we must look at giving the CQC the powers and resources necessary to take over failing homes and bring them up to a decent standard."