My loving parents who died just weeks apart

the wake of an inquiry report into 656 patients feared to have been given lethal doses of opioid painkillers at the Hampshire hospital between 1988 and 2000. GP Dr Jane Barton, 69 – since dubbed Dr Opiate – was in charge of prescribing the medicine.

Ivy was suffering from lung cancer found after a fall – but was not in pain.

Pauline told the Sunday Mirror: said: “She never knew she had lung cancer. Ian’s aunt and uncle even took her out of the hospital for tea one afternoon.

FRAUD

but they accepted the wisdom of medics.

In hindsight, he said it was clear something was not right. Ian went on: “It was almost common knowledge in the early 1990s and 2000s that you went in but you didn’t come out. There were rumours. Everybody seemed to know but nothing was done about it.”

And Pauline recalled visiting Jack in Gosport a few years earlier, while he was being treated for venous disease.

She added: “Jack was in a four bed ward. The next day we visited and the other three beds were empty – they’d died during the night.”

Ian spoke about his shock as inquiry chief Bishop James Jones revealed details of the scandal.

Ian said: “It was like a cold shower. How could this have gone on for so long?

“Even 10 years ago when she (Dr Barton) was investigated and suspended, she wasn’t struck off.

What has a doctor or a nurse got to do to be struck off by the GMC?”

The inquiry found an “institutionalised practice of shortening lives”.

But Ian is uncertain whether criminal charges would bring his family any comfort.

He added: “A lot of people want to see Dr Barton locked up. But would

it help?”