Valais inspectors find serious failures at private home-care firms
Friday 23rd October 2026 on 14:01 in
Switzerland
Inspectors in the Swiss canton of Valais found serious shortcomings at some private home-care providers, and the canton has banned five organisations from operating in recent years, SRF reports. Documents obtained by RTS and the newspaper Le Nouvelliste under public access rules detail the findings.
Failures included missed patient visits, mistakes involving medication dispensers and, in one case, an older person having to say what care they needed. One nurse failed to tell a patient’s doctor about a cough with phlegm, a symptom that can lead to a fatal fall in older people and should have been reported.
The shortcomings were linked in part to a lack of qualified staff. Some providers relied on assistants who were not adequately trained; one employee was hired despite failing her exams. At one organisation, a single nurse was responsible for 70 patients. Another had no qualified nurse at all for a month.
Authorities also criticised the “seriously deficient” organisation of some providers, citing incomplete care records, unpaid wages and pension contributions that had not been paid. RTS found that one company billed health insurers for services not covered by mandatory insurance, including housework and shopping.
Some providers challenged the allegations. An appeal against an operating ban was unsuccessful, and one company filed a defamation complaint against former employees who had acted as whistleblowers.
Public home-care providers were found to be in better shape, according to authorities. Only one public provider in the canton was told to improve its organisation. Insurer Groupe Mutuel also said excessive bills were less common among public providers.
Thomas Birbaum, a Valais member of parliament and secretary general of the cantonal home-care association OSAD Valais, acknowledged problems but said they involved an “extreme minority” and should not be generalised. He said new quality standards and official inspections would help prevent similar cases.