Private provider Care UK may have been celebrating its rise in profits three weeks ago but this week marks the end of yet another contract, this time in Islington.
After a series of complaints about its home care provision, the north London council terminated Care UK's contract on 3 December.
With the Panorama investigation into the provider and its poor performance in Harrow and Hertfordshire fresh in the minds of management, one would have thought the words "wake-up call" would have resonated.
But service users' experience in Islington suggests otherwise.
It is not the first time that Care UK has encountered a little local difficulty in Islington. It was mired in controversy after the bodies of two care home residents were left in their rooms for a couple of days at Lennox House in Finsbury Park.
A manager was suspended but Care UK retained the 25-year contract, which also covers two other care homes, after agreeing an improvement plan with the council.
I do hope somebody with a loud voice uttered the word "dignity" to the Care UK representatives during their meetings.
But it doesn't end there for Care UK.
Last month the British Medical Journal reported that Camden Primary Care Trust had shelved a plan to hand a £20m contract to Care UK for a GP-led health centre - by coincidence, the value of the provider's profits in the year just ended.
But at least the financial performance is sound. Profits? The profits of doom, more like.
I wonder how many contracts - in total - have been removed from Care UK since 1994, when Anglia Secure Homes (formed in 1982) changed its name and became known as Care UK plc?
Then again, it might be interesting to know how Care UK came to "acquire" so many care home premises from local authorities that previously owned those care home premises?
Were they all "sold for £1", with added £millions being paid by the Local Authorities to Care UK to ... take them over, for profit/with conditions and with long, long contracts, like the 25-year contract arranged in Islington for Care UK to run three care homes?
Who on earth ever agrees to a 25-year contract for anything? Unless and until the recipient of that contract is proven capable of managing any single contract for five years, let alone 25?
Interesting thought.
At last!!! The penny has dropped - or rather the loss of another multi-million £ contract has sharpened the thinking of Care UK.
Care UK has now acknowledged that it needs to invest in management and systems. Great pity it didn't learn that lesson a long while ago.
And it's also worked out that underperformance in community care was the result of growing faster than it was equipped to do, thereby failing so many of the people Care UK was supposed to care for.
The website www.mandadeals.co.uk reports: "In social care, where 70 to 80 per cent of Care UK’s beds are for dementia sufferers and other acute patients, turnover increased a lesser 5 per cent and operating profit fell 4 per cent. [Chief executive Mike] Parish attributes this to underperformance in community care, the result of growing faster than the company could deliver, and says ‘recovery is on the way’ after investment in new management and systems.
"With most income coming from local authorities, he says the company is considering building new care homes ‘in more affluent areas’ for self-paying patients, as public provision becomes restricted to those with higher needs."
But the cynic in me wonders whether Care UK is not planning to cash in again, by building for affluent self-funders, thereby profiting from the guaranteed reduction of provision by local authorities. Time will tell.
It's hardly surprising the number of complaints that Care UK is gettting. Not only are these from clients and families but the staff are treated appallingly, in domicilary care especially. The number of hours they have to work is unbelievable.
Which leads me to a slight understanding why a carer left a 97-year-old lady in the bath after her bath belt failed to work properly and told her that she had run out of time and had to go, leaving the client with her on call button nearby. But the lady couldn't reach it as she was stuck in the bath.
The most upsetting thing about this is the poor old lady had her hand held out to the carer who casually walked away because she would get in trouble for running late on her rota.