Gosport: Criminal charges may be brought
Call for doctor and nurses to face criminal charges
CRIMINAL CHARGES could be brought following “truly shocking” revelations that more than 450 people had their lives shortened by opioids being used without medical justification at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital.
A damning report found another 200 patients were “probably” similarly affected between 1989 and 2000.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the Gosport Independent Panel had identified a “catalogue of failings” by the authorities and apologised to the families who lost loved ones.
He told MPs: “The police, working with the CPS and clinicians as necessary, will now carefully examine the new material before determining their next steps and in particular whether criminal charges should now be brought.”
He said any further investigations should not involve organisations in previous probes, suggesting Hampshire Constabulary should bring in another force. The panel found, over a 12-year period as clinical assistant, Dr Jane Barton was “responsible for the practice of prescribing which prevailed on the wards”. But Mr Hunt questioned whether there had been an “institutional desire” to blame the events on a “rogue doctor” to protect reputations rather than address systemic failings.
The inquiry, led by the former bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, did not ascribe criminal or civil liability for the deaths. Mr Hunt said whistleblowers and families were ignored as they attempted to raise concerns.
“Had the establishment listened when junior NHS staff spoke out, had the establishment listened when ordinary families raised concerns instead of treating them as troublemakers, many of those deaths would not have happened,” he told MPs.
FAMILIES OF the elderly patients who died at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital have said they will not stop fighting until those responsible have been brought to justice in a court of law.
A damning report revealed the lives of more than 450 people had been shortened by the prescribing and administering of opioids without medical justification at the hospital.
Gosport Independent Panel found another 200 patients were “probably” similarly affected between 1989 and 2000.
Bridget Reeves, the granddaughter of 88-year-old Elsie Devine, said they could only put their loved ones to rest once the “horrifying, shameful, unforgivable” acts had been placed before a jury.
She said no one would have allowed their relatives to have been admitted to the hospital, had they known that in 1998 there was already an ongoing police investigation.
Documents show that seven years earlier – from February 1991 to January 1992 – a number of nurses raised concerns about the prescribing of the strong opioid diamorphine, but were not heeded by senior managers.
Ms Reeves said there would have been “outrage” if people had known of whistleblowers’ concerns. She said: “Inexcusable failure of them all is not only shameful, it is scandalous and it is immoral. They have grossly failed their ethical standards by abusing people’s human rights.
“Our vulnerable relatives who were stripped of their final words to their loved ones, silenced by overdoses, is more than catastrophic.
“This sort of behaviour going on in our NHS is both chilling and precarious.
“As victims of crime, we are all entitled to have an explanation when an alleged injustice has occurred but this has been sinister, calculated and those implicated must now face the rigour of the criminal justice system.
She added: “Hopefully people will wake up now and realise this is the largest national scandal under the NHS and the largest number of deaths under any sort of care.”
The panel found that, over a 12year period as clinical assistant, Dr Jane Barton was “responsible for the practice of prescribing which prevailed on the wards”.
Miss Reeves’s mother, Ann, said Dr Barton was not the only person she wanted held accountable and demanded criminal prosecutions.
“She had people working with her. I want those nurses... you can have one or two deaths and make a mistake but you can’t have hundreds.
“We are going to make sure and we are not going to stop pushing. No sense of closure.
“This is the beginning of another journey, which is why we don’t agree to close all the inquiries.”
Charles Farthing, whose stepfather Brian Cunningham died at the hospital, also called for prosecutions and said: “Dr Barton was utterly reckless in her prescribing.
“She effectively gave the nurses a free licence to do to these people as they wished.
“I think it has got to happen, not just Dr Barton but the nurses too.
“The nurses knew what was going on. It was commissioned by Dr Barton but the nurses are equally guilty.
“They are trained to care and should have known that something was going on.”
Mr Farthing’s wife Ann said: “It isn’t just about Brian, he didn’t deserve to be treated like a dog, it’s for everybody.
“Who wants to be frightened going into hospital, thinking someone is going to play God?”
Bishop James Jones – a former Bishop of Hull – said the families had shown “remarkable tenacity and fortitude” in pursuing the truth of what happened to their loved ones.
He said: “The documents show they were right to ask those questions.”
It is not only shameful, it is scandalous and immoral. Bridget Reeves, granddaughter of Elsie Devine who died at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.