Home care provider Community Careline Services (CCS) came under fire last month (June) when more than 30 of its Dacorum clients were not attended to during one weekend.

The family of Mr John Eustace were heartbroken to find him alone and unresponsive hours after he should have been helped from bed, fed and given a drink by CCS carers.

The 96 year old was admitted to Hemel Hempstead Hospital and died 10 days later after contracting pneumonia.

His daughter, Sylvia Reade, 66, said: "Dad was very elderly and we knew his time would come sooner rather than later, but how could it have helped being left in bed for all that time with no attendance and nothing to drink?

"He had Parkinsons that gave him problems with his speech but he had his wits about him and had been very happy."

Sylvia and her sister, Angela Brown, say they had regular problems with CCS before the weekend their father was taken to hospital.

They say carers were not assigned to visit Mr Eustace or would arrive late at least once a month.

She said: "We worked so hard to keep dad in the home that he loved until the day he died. He had been there for 50 years and loved to sit at the front window to wave hello to people he knew.

"It breaks my heart that he ended up spending his last days in a hospital bed."

As many as 38 elderly people were left alone for hours when CCS failed to visit all of its clients on Saturday, June 14, and Sunday 15.

The company, that has an office on Maxted Road in Hemel Hempstead, provides home care on behalf of Herts County Council to 658 people in Dacorum.

CCS said the preliminary results of an investigation into the high level of complaints would be heard in August.

Director Greg Aylmer said the company would decline to comment until the investigation was completed.