More than 450 patients died due to opioid drugs policy
US - More than 450 patients died and possibly 200 more had their lives shortened because of a Hampshire hospital’s practice of giving opioid drugs without medical justification, a major inquiry has found.
The independent report found that Dr Jane Barton, the GP who ran wards at Gosport War Memorial hospital, routinely overprescribed drugs for her patients in the 1990s. Consultants were aware of her actions but did not intervene. The inquiry, led by the bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, found that 456 patients died because of the drugs. A further 200 patients may have had their lives shortened, but their records are missing. The report said senior nurses were worried about using diamorphine the medical name for heroin for patients who were not in pain, administered through a syringe-driver pumping out doses that were not adjusted for the individual’s needs. Concerns were raised as early as 1988. In 1991, a staff meeting was held that was attended by a convenor from the Royal College of Nursing. But the nurses were warned not to take their concerns further. They had, the report said, given the hospital the opportunity to rectify the over-prescribing. “In choosing not to do so, the opportunity was lost, deaths resulted and 22 years later, it became necessary to establish this panel in order to discover the truth of what happened.”
The panel made it clear it thought prosecutions should follow, although it was beyond its remit to say so. The report invited the health secretary, the attorney general, the chief constable of Hampshire police and the relevant investigatory authorities “to recognize the significance of what is revealed about the circumstances of deaths at the hospital and act accordingly”. Barton worked as a clinical assistant at the hospital for 12 years. She was responsible for prescribing on the wards, but her superiors, the hospital’s consultants, knew what she was doing. Nurses had a responsibility to challenge Barton if they thought the drugs were not in the interests of the patients, but records showed they did not exercise it, the report said. (The Guardian)