The latest reports for Hampshire from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into the state of homes for the elderly in the county make for disturbing reading.

Two homes were found to be inadequate when commission representatives swooped without prior warning.

Vulnerable elderly residents in one home slept on dirty mattresses in rooms reeking of urine.

Mops were left in buckets of dirty water, clean laundry dumped near soiled items, while stagnant water overflowed from an outside drain.

These matters would hardly be called just ‘inadequacies’ by the majority of people, however that is the terminology used by the commission.

What is more disturbing is that this is not the only report to show woeful conditions in homes where the elderly reside.

But while the details are shocking, we can take some comfort in the fact the CQC have made serious inroads into tackling this issue.