Don’ t let Gosport tragedy destroy all trust

DR JANE BARTON, the doctor at the centre of the Gosport Memorial Hospital scandal, broke cover this week, standing by her husband as he read out a statement saying that she ‘did her best’ for her patients.

Relatives whose loved ones died before their time will understandably disagree.

However, I’m worried about one aspect of the Gosport aftermath. I’m already hearing whispers among colleagues in cancer care about increased scrutiny of their prescribing of powerful pain-killing opiates.

There is a danger the pendulum may swing too far the other way — and for thousands of vulnerable patients that would be the worst possible outcome.

Doctors do hasten death for many of those for whom the end is imminent and are suffering greatly. It happened to my Gran — and I’ll always be grateful.

Gran was always clear with her family that she didn’t want to die in distress.

She developed lung cancer and, when her time came, my sister and I were very relieved that as she became increasingly restless and uncomfortable, a nurse raised the frequency of the morphine drip — all of us aware that it was accelerating the inevitable. Five minutes later Gran stopped breathing.

Of course, I don’t want to live in a society where rogue doctors feel able to act like God and cull patients. But equally, I want to ensure that as clinicians we can use our knowledge and judgment to ensure that, where appropriate, we can oversee the kind of dignified, peaceful death my Gran had.