Two deaths at Elsie Inglis Nursing Home have led to police investigations Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon is to identify care of the elderly as a top priority for the Scottish government at a conference later.
Ms Sturgeon will outline her plans to an Alzheimer Scotland’s dementia awareness event in Glasgow.
Questions about the quality of care were prompted by a police investigation into a nursing home in Edinburgh.
And hundreds of residents could also be affected by financial difficulties at care home provider Southern Cross.
Police launched an investigation into the death of an 87-year-old man, days after he left the Elsie Inglis home in Edinburgh.
Officers have already sent a report to the procurator fiscal after a 59-year-old woman, who had been a resident at the home, died after being transferred to hospital.
That death prompted NHS Lothian and Edinburgh city council to intervene.
The home was closed and all 70 residents moved elsewhere.
Hundreds of elderly people in Scotland are cared for in Southern Cross homes In a separate case the Mental Welfare Commission has severely criticised Ninewells hospital in Dundee over the care of an 80-year-old woman with dementia.
The commission found that use of sedatives in the days leading up to the woman’s death was distressing and unnecessary.
In its response, NHS Tayside accepted that the treatment was “woefully inadequate” and said it had begun a programme of improvements.
Government and local authorities throughout the UK have been monitoring financial problems at care homes operated by Southern Cross.
It looks after hundreds of people in Scotland.
Rising costs and falling income have forced it to cut the rent it pays to the owners of its properties.
Some owners may not be able to agree to the cut in rental payments, which would cast doubt on the operation of the care homes.
Labour, the main opposition group within the Scottish Parliament, has called for closer working between hospitals and local authorities.
Its health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “We need to see clarity from the SNP government on whether or not they support integrating health and social care.
“There is no room for uncertainty and older people deserve to know exactly what the government’s intentions are.”
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