Families seek justice over hospital deaths

DOCTORS at a scandal-hit hospital should face criminal charges over scores of patient deaths, the daughter of a woman who died in suspicious circumstances has said.

A long-awaited report into the deaths of 833 patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital between 1988 and 2000 will be published next week.

Families hope it will finally shine a light on why so many patients died and condemn how authorities have handled their cases.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s publication of the report, Gillian Mackenzie said she hoped it would lead to those involved in the care of patients such as her mother Gladys Richards facing prosecution.

She said: “I won’t be satisfied with just a report. I want it to go very much further, on behalf of all the families, because we all need justice.

“I would like to see some of the people who were involved behind bars.”

The report is the culmination of a four-year inquiry headed by former Bishop of Liverpool James Jones, who led the Hillsborough inquiry.

It centres around allegations stretching back 30 years that patients at the hospital were “almost routinely” given strong painkillers in high doses, which in some cases led to their deaths.

Families have suggested their – often elderly – relatives were given excessive doses of the drugs to “keep them quiet” on over-stretched wards.

The allegations focus on the actions of former GP Dr Jane Barton, who was found guilty of “multiple instances of serious professional misconduct” by the General Medical Council in 2010 but was not struck off and soon retired. Inquests into 11 of the deaths in 2009 and 2013 ruled medication prescribed by Dr Barton had contributed to six patients dying.

Police launched an investigation into 92 of the deaths in 2002 but after an inquiry, the Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2006 that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

In 2014, the then health minister Norman Lamb set up the Gosport Independent Panel and announced an inquiry, originally expected to take two years at a cost of £3.6million. It has gone on until now, costing £13million.

Mrs Mackenzie was the first family member to go to the police with concerns in 1998, after her 91-year-old mother died suddenly after being transferred to the Gosport War Memorial Hospital following a hip operation.

Patient notes showed Mrs Richards was “not obviously in pain” but she was prescribed strong painkillers by Dr Barton. An inquest in 2013 ruled the drugs “more than insignificantly” contributed to her death.

Mrs Mackenzie, 84, who has recently had cancer treatment, said she hoped it would “wake up” the authorities.

“If the report is done properly it should identify the 15 strongest cases that can be taken to court, and I don’t mind whether my case is one or not, as long as eventually there is a conviction for the people involved,” she said.

‘I won’t be satisfied with just a report. I would like to see some of the people who were involved behind bars’