PRESSURE is mounting on council chiefs to scrap their contract with a shamed care company after a damning report revealed a catalogue of failures.

It revealed that Carewatch Hampshire South was run so poorly that managers didn't even know how many people were under their care, while some vulnerable people were left in their own filth.

Now top politicians have joined a chorus demanding that Hampshire County Council ends its contract with the firm unless immediate improvements are made, alongside the husband of one its care workers murdered in Southampton, who holds the firm accountable for her death.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, a damning report slammed Carewatch over its treatment of clients.

The Daily Echo has made several attempts to demand answers from the company, but we have been met with a wall of silence.

Carewatch Hampshire South, which is based in Chandler's Ford, is responsible for helping 543 people in their homes across Hampshire - but the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report said staff could not even say how many people it was supposed to be caring for.

Inspectors deemed it to be inadequate in every area, with the company receiving two official warning notices and nine breaches of the Health and Social Care Act.

Hampshire County Council signed a new care contract with the organisation earlier this year and is now under increasing pressure to end the deal unless the standard of care is improved considerably, and immediately.

Peter Merritt’s wife Sarah worked for the company and was murdered as she made a routine call to one of the women she was caring for.

He says she would still be alive without the company’s “negligence” and has called on both councils to end their contracts with Carewatch immediately.

Conservative Eastleigh MP Mims Davies, said: "If improvements are not swiftly made then the appropriate action should be taken and that would involve removing the contract.

“This report has made for quite shocking reading and I very much feel for the people who have received such an inadequate service from this company.

“It is wholly unacceptable that perhaps hundreds of people have been given care in their own homes that was not safe, effective, caring or well-led.

“I am now relieved that the CQC has put it in special measures and I will be speaking to the commission as a matter of urgency to find out in detail what is now going to happen and to be fully briefed on the situation.

“I very much hope that an improvement is quickly established for the sake of those who are being cared for because they must be very alarmed by events.”

Winchester and Chandler's Ford MP Steve Brine said: "The memory of Mid Staffs is shockingly fresh and rightly so.

"The CQC are doing their job in producing this report and the commissioners need to make a robust response that reassures ratepayers, patients and staff. That should be sooner rather than later."

UKIP Hampshire county councillor Andy Moore said: "They should be stripped of the contract unless there is an immediate improvement.

"People are paying for services and they are not getting them, and they are suffering as a result."

Southampton City Council has a contract with another Carewatch team, which is managed separately, and the authority says it has not had any concerns reported to it.

However in light of the report it is monitoring the care provided by the Southampton team, and the city's MPs have urged the council to be vigilant.

Conservative Itchen MP Royston Smith said: "I'm relieved there are none of these problems as far as we know in Southampton.

"The most important thing is to ensure that the most vulnerable people are kept safe and treated with dignity."

Labour Test MP Alan Whitehead added: "I think they should be extra vigilant in Southampton as well, because it has to be a service that people can rely on.

"The consequences are not as though someone hasn't had their bin picked up - it's a life and death matter."

  • Are you receiving care from Carewatch or do you work for Carewatch? Contact the newsdesk in confidence on 023 8042 4522 or email newsdesk@dailyecho.co.uk.