Police probe into 450 premature deaths at one UK hospital
CRIMINAL charges could be brought following “truly shocking” revelations that the lives of more than 450 people had been shortened by the prescribing and administering of opioids without medical justification at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital.
A damning report found an additional 200 patients were “probably” similarly affected between 1989 and 2000.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the Gosport Independent Panel had identified a “catalogue of failings” by the authorities and apologised to the families who lost loved ones in the scandal.
He told MPs: “The police, working with the CPS and clinicians as necessary, will now carefully examine the new material in the report before determining their next steps and in particular whether criminal charges should now be brought.”
The panel found, over a 12year period as clinical assistant, Dr Jane Barton was “responsible for the practice of prescribing which prevailed on the wards”.
But Mr Hunt questioned whether there had been an “institutional desire” to blame the events on a “rogue doctor” to protect reputations rather than address systemic failings.
Led by former Bishop of Liverpool the Rt Rev James Jones, the inquiry did not ascribe criminal or civil liability for the deaths.
Mr Hunt said the findings were “truly shocking”, with whistleblowers and families ignored as they tried to raise concerns.
The Gosport Independent Panel found hospital management, Hampshire Police, the Crown From left: Robert Wilson, Sheila Gregory, Geoffrey Packman and Arthur Cunningham, with his wife Rhoda, all died while being treated at Gosport War Memorial Hospital (right)
of shortening lives of a large number of patients”.
The report said: “There was an institutionalised regime of prescribing and administering ‘dangerous doses’ of a hazardous combination of medication not clinically indicated or justified, with patients and relatives powerless in their relationship with professional staff.”
It added: “The panel found evidence of opioid use without appropriate clinical indication in 456 patients. Taking into account missing records, there were probably at least another 200 patients similarly affected.
“The panel’s analysis therefore demonstrates that the lives of over 450 people were shortened as a direct result of the pattern of prescribing and administering opioids that had become the norm at the hospital, and that probably at least another 200 patients were similarly affected.”
In 2010 the GMC ruled that Dr Barton, who has since retired, was guilty of multiple instances of professional misconduct relating to 12 patients who died at the hospital.