Barely a week passes without a report exposing devastating failures in the care of the elderly, who are left lying in their own waste or dying of thirst on hospital wards.

Is this what we should expect or accept after a lifetime of hard work and service to this country?

What is particularly shocking about the investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission is that patients who are in receipt of home care are suffering from equally appalling neglect.

By remaining at home, these vulnerable old people are saving local authorities millions in residential care fees. Yet they are treated as an inconvenience by councils.

“Carers” leave them in bed for 17 hours at a time and visit so briefly that there is a stark choice between having a cooked meal or a wash.

Of course, the town hall bureaucrats will blame spending cuts, but they still find plenty of cash to lavish on non-jobs and inflated salaries. They should hang their heads in shame.

Ministers must make council’s spend taxpayers’ money on providing care for the elderly – not looking after themselves.

Colin Henson, Ullswater, York.