‘Dr Opiate’ could face murder trial over deaths of 650 patients
A DOCTOR accused of presiding over the deaths of 650 elderly patients could face a murder trial.
Jane Barton, 71, is suspected of repeatedly prescribing lethal doses of painkillers at Gosport War Memorial Hospital near Portsmouth.
But she has never faced charges and was allowed to carry on working up to her retirement in 2010, collecting a generous GP’s pension.
Yesterday Kent and Essex Police, which had been independently reviewing the deaths, announced they would launch a fresh criminal investigation.
Experts will trawl through hundreds of medical records to establish whether the prescribing of opiate
‘Trawl through records’
painkillers directly led to deaths. And a team of up to 90 officers will spend nine months interviewing families one on one. Many relatives claim they were ignored by Hampshire Police, the force previously investigating the deaths, which occurred between 1987 and 2001. Depending on the evidence, Barton – dubbed Dr Opiate – could face charges for murder or for gross negligence manslaughter.
Both carry maximum sentences of life imprisonment and the nurses and consultants who worked alongside her could also face manslaughter charges.
Assistant chief constable Nick Downing of Kent Police said yesterday that ‘all homicide charges including murder’ were on the table. The announcement follows a major independent inquiry last June that concluded Barton had presided over an ‘institutionalised regime’ of shortening lives.
Elderly patients considered a ‘nuisance’ were given syringe drivers filled with opiates that killed them within days of coming into hospital.
The inquiry found that least 456 patients’ lives had been shortened after being prescribed opioids, with a further 200 people probably suffering a similar fate.
Ian Sandford, 75, who mother Hazel died of pneumonia at the hospital in 1990 aged 80, yesterday called for Barton to face murder charges.
He said: ‘Manslaughter and all those charges aren’t good enough. I want murder charges and nothing else will do.’
Mr Sandford said his mother was admitted to the hospital in late 1990 having suffered a series of strokes and but just days later he discovered staff had put her next to two open windows in freezing weather in December.
Barton was a GP who was employed as a clinical assistant at the hospital for 12 years. She was responsible for prescribing and nursing staff raised concerns about her practices as far back as 1988.
Kent and Essex Police took over the investigation last June from Hampshire Police, which had carried out three failed inquiries into the deaths.
Barton has always insisted that she acted with ‘care, concern and compassion’ for her patients.
She lives in a £700,000 Georgian townhouse in Alverstoke, Gosport, with her husband, who is a retired naval commodore.