NOW PUT HER IN THE DOCK
GP’s regime claimed up to 650 patients’ lives with overdoses of painkillers ++ NHS bosses, police and MP failed to act for 30 YEARS ++ As she goes into hiding, grieving families demand . . .
A GP blamed for failings that cost up to 650 lives must face justice, families said last night.
They demanded action after a report accused Jane Barton of presiding over giving patients powerful drugs they did not need. It revealed that 456 had died after being prescribed opioids while she was employed at Gosport War Memorial Hospital near Portsmouth.
Another 200 of her patients, whose medical records have
gone missing, probably suffered a similar fate. the four-year, £13million inquiry into the scandal was finally published yesterday – 30 years after the first complaints were made about Barton.
the 70-year- old was nowhere to be seen at her £700,000 home yesterday. neighbours said she had gone to Spain, where she is believed to own a house.
relatives were furious she was not at the publication of the report yesterday – apparently preferring to be on holiday while they learned ‘the horrible truth’ about their loved ones.
Although Barton was the focus of criticism, the report was scathing about of senior consultants, nurses, pharmacists and managers at the hospital. they failed to intervene while she was working there between 1988 and 2000.
the report suggested relatives would wonder whether there was a culture of conspiracy and collusion between the hospital, police, medical authorities and coroners to hush up the scandal.
nurses first raised the alarm that Barton was giving patients dangerous doses of painkillers in 1988 and again in 1991. But they were dismissed by a manager as a ‘small group of night staff
‘Conspiracy and collusion’
making waves’. Families started voicing their concerns in 1998 but were treated as ‘troublemakers’ by the hospital and later the police.
Despite three police investigations, two reviews by medical bodies and 11 inquests no criminal charges have been laid. in other developments:
the report warned of a ‘disregard for human life’ and a ‘culture of shortening the lives of a large number of patients’ at Gosport;
it said patients were given ‘dangerous doses’ of ‘hazardous combinations of medication’ without medical justification;
theresa May acknowledged the deaths were ‘deeply troubling’;
A former tory MP was criticised for trying to prevent further inquiries into the hospital;
A health chief was accused of failing to spot the crisis and refusing to meet relatives;
Police were criticised for describing relatives as simply ‘out to stir up trouble’.
led by the former Bishop of liverpool, James Jones, the inquiry examined the records of 2,024 patients.
nurses who did raise concerns about Barton were told ‘doctor knows best’ and warned against ‘disruptive criticism’. Barton has always insisted she acted with ‘care, concern and compassion’.
She appeared before a panel on the General Medical council in January 2010 but was not struck off. She retired on her generous GP pension in March 2010 and lives in a Georgian townhouse with her husband, a retired naval commodore.
But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned that Barton and other hospital staff could face criminal charges, depending on the outcome of forthcoming police investigations.
He told MPs in the commons yesterday : ‘the police, working with the crown Prosecution Service and clinicians as necessary, will now carefully examine the new material in the report before determining their next steps and in particular whether criminal charges should now be brought.
‘i want to reassure the public that important events have taken place since these events that would make the catalogue of failings in this report less likely.’
Pamela Byrne, 75, whose stepfather clifford Houghton died aged 72, said: ‘it’s nice for Barton that she goes off on holiday while the rest of us are here finding out the horrible truth about what happened to our loved ones.’
WHO could fail to be shocked by yesterday’s revelations about the conduct of Dr Jane Barton, who presided over a regime at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in which elderly patients were given lethal doses of opiates without any clinical justification?
Yet amid the public’s anger over her horrifying (and surely criminal?) wrongdoing, it is vital not to lose sight of the systemic scandal unearthed by the former Bishop of Liverpool and his panel.
Any organisation as vast as the NHS is bound to include figures operating under rogue codes of their own. This is why so many institutions exist to protect patients and their loved ones from the abuses of the few.
Yet in this case, finds the report, every single authority – the General Medical Council, the hospital trust, the police, even the local MP – failed catastrophically.
Worse still, they may have covered up what was going on – closing ranks and dismissing complaints from relatives and whistleblowers – while up to 650 were killed or had their lives shortened by inappropriate prescribing of opiates.
If Gosport were an isolated case, it would be appalling enough. But coming after such scandals as Mid- Staffordshire, in which up to 1,200 died of neglect, it suggests an institutional contempt for the elderly.
As the NHS marks its 70th birthday next month, staff and the public will rightly be celebrating a much- loved national institution. But as yesterday’s report so graphically underlines, this should also be an occasion for deep soul-searching over the service’s attitude to whistleblowers and the value of old people’s lives. ÷WHO
said miracles never happen? Martin Wolf, revered economics guru of the eurofanatical, Japanese- owned Financial Times, finally admitted the truth yesterday, writing: ‘ The euro has been a failure… It has become a source of discord.’ Whisper it softly, but the Mail has been saying this for 25 years, since the one-sizefits-all currency was at the planning stage. Is it too much to hope, amid the rejoicing in heaven over a sinner that repenteth, that Mr Wolf can now persuade his Légion d’honneur-winning editor that the EU simply isn’t working?