WITH ANGER »

Deaths report published while he was on hol Files name deadly staff Cruel breach of our trust

DEVOTED

Has your family been affected by the Gosport Memorial Hospital inquiry scandal? Contact the Sunday Mirror on 0800 289 441 or scoops@ sundaymirror.co.uk

VERY FAMILIES of 656 Gosport victims are finally set to learn who administered the drugs that killed their loved ones.

The Gosport Independent Panel has uncovered crucial files that reveal the medics who gave the fatal doses.

They face being named and investigated. Families, meanwhile, have launched a crowdfund appeal to take their case to criminal court.

And another police probe – by an outside force – is likely.

Gillian Mackenzie, 85, whose mum Gladys Richards, 91, died in 1998, said: “For too long things were swept under the carpet and this new openness is to be welcomed.”

Cindy Grant, 44, whose father Stan Carby died in 1999, said: “To be able to see all the documents is brilliant.”

Files already released reveal hundreds were given diamorphine via “syringe driver” into their back.

Dr Jane Barton routinely prescribed them and wrote “please make comfortable” in patient files. The panel found a “direct link” between this phrase and the patient being given opiods until they died. WHAT we have learned this past week has been quite simply devastating, shocking and heartbreaking – a shameful episode in our nation’s recent history.

As inquiry leader Bishop James Jones says, handing over a loved one to a hospital, to doctors and nurses, is an act of trust.

That trust was betrayed. But how could this have been allowed to go on for so long? How could so many warnings go unheeded?

And why did families who had lost loved ones have to take on such burden and toll to demand answers?

I have witnessed the extraordinary dedication and professionalism of our NHS under intense pressure.

But we know, sometimes, things go wrong, tragically.

In Gosport a whole system – across the NHS, police and justice system – let many families down.

We must ask ourselves why this happened. And dedicate ourselves to making sure it never happens again.