Safety expert: No surprise if this is happening elsewhere

No effort to trace horror-hit families

NO efforts are being made to trace the families of almost 300 newly discovered victims of the Gosport scandal, the Mirror can reveal.

Instead, the Department for Health has set up a helpline and is waiting for relatives to “come forward”. It means they may never learn the shocking truth of how their loved ones’ lives ended early “without medical justification”.

Families of other victims said it was “outrageous” and called on the NHS to find as many relatives as possible.

Out of 456 victims identified by the Gosport Independent Panel, just 163 families have been in touch with investigators.

It leaves 293 victims whose identities are known after the panel uncovered their medical records.

Another 200 victims “probably” died in the same way but their medical notes cannot be found.

Victims included Arthur Cunningham, 79, who died in 1998, five days after being admitted with bed sores and frail Elsie Devine, 88, who died after being pinned down by four nurses and injected with a large, inappropriate dose of opioids.

Gillian Wilson, 73, whose husband Robert died at Gosport War Memorial, said: “It’s terrible so SITUATIONS similar to Gosport are “likely” to be taking place elsewhere, according to a leading health academic.

Professor Sir Brian Jarman – head of the Dr Foster Unit at Imperial College London, which specialises in health safety data – said NHS whistleblowers are still “fired, gagged and blacklisted”.

Sir Brian also said his unit’s information on mortality rates was not properly assessed by health officials. He added: “There really is a desire not to know. It has been difficult for whistleblowers who have many people haven’t been spoken to and haven’t been involved in the inquiry. They should go through their records and find every person who died in suspicious circumstances. It’s outrageous.”

Ex-naval officer Robert Wilson, 74, broke his arm in a fall after being startled by a dog. After three weeks in a hospital he was transferred to Gosport for rehab. But he was wrongly assessed as a “terminal case” because he had liver disease. Within a few hours of arriving at the hospital he was given powerful opiates and died four days later.

His son Iain told an inquest: “I went to give him a cuddle and he spoke his last words to me: ‘Help me son, they are killing me’.”

Cindy Grant, the daughter of victim Stan Carby, said: “It is extremely important as many people as possible are identified.

“They need to be part of the investigation because they may have very strong cases which may form part of any criminal action.”

Yesterday, the Department of Health set up a helpline “for people reading about what happened at Gosport and who have concerns it may have affected loved ones”. tried to draw attention to these problems to get themselves heard.”

Asked if he would be surprised if events like Gosport were happening in other hospitals, he replied: “I think it’s likely.”

Following the Gosport deaths, the NHS carried out a Freedom to Speak Up Review in 2015 and created guardians and pilot schemes to support whistleblowers.

But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said a “blame culture” meant it was still too difficult for NHS staff to raise concerns or for medics to admit mistakes.