Our hospitals and care homes should be places of comfort and compassion.
So it is shocking to find that at the height of the pandemic hundreds of people not suffering Covid died from dehydration.
For just one person to die in this way is unacceptable.
That 345 died of thirst between January and July this year is a national scandal.
The fact that staff were unable to provide something so basic as a glass of water points to a collapse of care services.
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It happened because the Government was too slow to throw a protective ring around care homes. Older people were left high and dry because staff did not have proper protective kit.
Families, who often help loved ones with feeding and drinking, were unable to visit.
In hospitals, a decade of under-funding meant over-stretched NHS workers could not provide the care patients needed.
At every stage of the crisis this Government has failed people in care homes. At first, they advised residents were not at risk. Then they failed to give sufficient PPE.
Worse still, they discharged thousands of patients from hospital into care homes without testing them for coronavirus.
As a result, places of sanctuary became death traps.
Official figures show that by July more than 20,000 people had died from Covid in care homes.
Families who entrusted their loved ones to residential homes or the NHS deserved better.
Ministers who allowed this to happen should hang their heads in shame.
