Well done, Panorama. I was glued to my seat watching the programme on Sunday night about agency care in Brighton and Hove.

I think this problem is country-wide. The care my parents received in the last few years was similar. My father, who was very sick with cancer, had a help alarm and accidentally pushed the button while in bed.

I understood that if the alarm went off I would be contacted but my father was woken in the middle of the night by an angry man who told him he must not wear the alarm in bed and took it off his neck.

A couple of months later my father fell at 5am. The carer came at 10.30am and could not get any answer at his house. She did not have a key to get in as she was new.

I found my father at 2.30pm lying on the floor. The alarm was just out of his reach on a table. I called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital where he sadly died three weeks later.

There are some genuine carers but there are also some who take advantage of these elderly, vulnerable people.

It is no good the Government throwing money at agencies if they are not monitored properly.

I have a niece who was recently made redundant after working 13 years at a very good care home in Barking, Essex.

Barking, like most councils, is closing homes due to cost. She took work in a trust home but had to leave as she could not comply with the poor standard of care offered there.

She said the home looked very good for the relatives but the standard of care and facilities were far below scratch.

She was told off for trying to clean a resident's filthy nails as that was not what she was paid for.

Most of the carers at the home were related and had set up a closed shop where other workers were concerned.

What is the Government going to do about this?

-Linda Bartlett, Upminster, Essex