Did Gosport scandal syringes lead to deaths across UK?

DANGEROUS syringe pumps could have helped to kill elderly people in the Gosport hospital scandal, it has been claimed.

A whistleblower on the government inquiry into the deaths of hundreds of patients said the role played by the devices had been ‘ignored’.

The syringe drivers have been used in the NHS across the country for around 30 years. They were described as potentially ‘really dangerous’ by one doctor and the subject of hazard notices from health officials in the 1990s after nurses repeatedly mixed up a pump giving an hourly dose of drugs with another administering 24-hour doses. The massive ‘over-infusions’ given to patients were blamed for deaths, with the manufacturing company forced to produce clearer labels.

Up to 650 patients are feared to have died at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Portsmouth between 1998 and 2000 after being given dangerous doses of opioid painkillers, with GP Jane Barton blamed for causing patients to be given drugs they did not need. Problems with the syringes used were examined by the panel, but it was decided they were not relevant to its conclusions.

The whistleblower said the issue was ‘buried’, telling The Sunday Times: ‘This could be one of the biggest cover-ups in NHS history.

‘Anyone who has lost their granny over the past 30 years when opiates were administered

‘Biggest cover-up in NHS history’

by this equipment will be asking themselves, “Is that what killed Granny?”’ The allegations were described as ‘unfounded’ by the inquiry panel.

Graseby MS 16A and MS 26 syringe drivers were designed to free up doctors’ time by delivering liquids from syringes without the need for manual injections.

But although one had a blue label and the other a green one, nurses would mix them up. This resulted in staff setting doses wrongly as millimetres per 24 hours instead of millimetres per hour, which led to fatalities, according to an NHS Scotland hazard notice from 1996.

The Gosport panel documents show the hospital used the Graseby MS 26 syringe driver at the time that hundreds of patients died. Instructions on the ward suggest the 16A was in use also. Barton refused to answer police questions on the syringe drivers’ role in patient deaths.

In a later interview, she described the claims against her as ‘repugnant’ and ‘deeply distressing’.

But Dr Richard Reid, who supervised Barton and whose police statement was considered by the panel, said having two types of syringe driver was ‘totally confusing’ and potentially ‘really dangerous’. During the inquiry into the scandal, the former Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, examined a 2013 clinical evaluation report from Smith Medical, which took over the company making the syringe drivers shortly before they were phased out by the NHS between 2010 and 2015.

It states: ‘Between January 1, 2005, and June 30, 2010, the NPSA received reports of eight deaths and 167 non-fatal reports involving ambulatory syringe drivers.’ The now-defunct National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) had also released a Rapid Response Report citing evidence of harm and death and a need to address safety issues.

It came after specially priced £1 warning labels had to be produced for Graseby syringe drivers in 1996 stating clearly ‘hourly rate’ or ‘daily rate’.

The Gosport panel’s report states: ‘The panel has considered issues concerned the particular syringe drivers, known by their tradename of Graseby, and is aware of the hazard notices which applied. The panel’s analysis does not rest upon any issue relating to these notices.’ But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told The Andrew Marr Show yesterday: ‘We will look at whether the NHS did react quickly enough when we first found out about the safety consequences of these syringes.’

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘Following a safety alert issued in 2010, these specific syringe drivers should have been withdrawn completely by the NHS by 2015. However, the Health Secretary has asked officials to urgently look into this matter, to ensure that no unsafe devices of this kind are being used.’

Smiths Medical said: ‘ Smiths Medical notes the recent comment in relation to its MS 16A and MS 26 syringe drivers. We take any potential issue with our products incredibly seriously and will be fully investigating these allegations.’ A Gosport Independent Panel spokesman said: ‘ These allegations are completely unfounded and without merit.’