Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tory MP ‘refused to help Dr Opiate inquiry families’
He snubbed probe and fought against the relatives’ campaign
A FORMER Tory MP refused to co-operate with the landmark inquiry into the Gosport hospital scandal.
And documents show how Sir Peter Viggers – notorious for claiming for a £1,645 duck house on MPS’ expenses – fought for years against the families’ campaign for justice.
Sir Peter, the town’s MP from 1974 to 2010, was asked by the Gosport Independent Panel to provide paperwork relating to his dealings with the scandal but he failed to do so.
This week the panel’s report revealed between 1989 and 2000 up to 650 patients may have had their “lives shortened” by being given powerful painkillers “without medical justification”.
Families began telling Sir Peter of their concerns in 2001 – three years after the first case was reported to police.
Marjorie Bulbeck told him in 2002: “You should be reassuring your constituents that NOW it is a safe hospital only because people like myself have had the courage to complain, if we had not patients would still be enduring the regime and dying.”
The MP wrote back saying: “I do not think your comments are justified. Some very extravagant language has been used by a small number of people, but this does not alter the fact that a high standard of care is provided by a devoted staff.”
Marjorie tried to move mum Dulcie Middleton, 86, from the hospital in 2001 but she had deteriorated and died a few weeks later.
Marjorie claimed yesterday Sir Peter “helped in the establishment cover-up”.
Cindy Grant, 44, whose dad Stan Carby died aged 65 at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, in Hampshire, in 1999, said Sir Peter should be “ashamed”. She added: “I don’t think he took our concerns seriously, and that is dreadful.
“He [said] in Parliament he didn’t think there was anything in it, despite the evidence.”
Prescriptions at the hospital were signed off by Jane Barton, 70 – dubbed Doctor Opiate.
Sir Peter quizzed ministers on the cost of the probes into the hospital and said in 2008: “I like and know the hospital and the people there and would like the issue to be allowed to rest.”
Meanwhile, he was claiming tens of thousands in expenses on a second home he later sold for £800,000. His expenses claims between 2004 and 2008 included £500 for manure.
He was knighted in 2008. His successor as Gosport MP, Caroline Dinenage, swiftly backed calls for an inquiry into the hospital scandal.
There was no response yesterday at Sir Peter’s apartment in Central London. Earlier in the week, the 80-year-old refused to comment on the panel’s report.
I don’t think he took our concerns seriously, and that is dreadful GRIEVING DAUGHTER ON MP’S RESPONSE TO FAMILIES