Evening Standard comment: Shame of Gosport NHS deaths is shared widely; We're calling on you to enter our Art Prize; Congratulations Jacinda Ardern

A decade of deaths and three decades of secrecy: thanks to a report led by the former Bishop of Liverpool , James Jones, we now know the horrific consequences of Dr Jane Barton’s time at Gosport Memorial Hospital.

Relatives of the 465 patients whose lives may have been shortened by “dangerous doses” of “hazardous combinations of medicine” understandably want justice.

At last they may get it, with the chief of Hampshire police confirming that fresh evidence may allow the re-opening of criminal investigations — after three previous probes described by the report as “consistently poor”.

That’s an appropriate next step. But it will only ever answer one part of what went wrong in this long and disturbing tale.

The new report is damming of Dr Barton. But its account of how the authorities reacted to repeated warnings from relatives is almost as shocking.

Hospital managers, medical regulators, prosecutors: all of them and others first failed to detect Dr Barton’s record and then, when warned, failed to admit and address what went wrong.

Only now, 30 years after complaints were made by concerned relatives, has the truth been exposed.

Would such a thing happen now? Would a hospital, under pressure, with an unusual pattern of early deaths, pick up the warning signs? Would it listen to relatives and trust them ahead of medical experts? Perhaps.

A succession of scandals, in medicine and elsewhere, have shown that those in authority are not always right — and families may be more willing to challenge them than they once were.

We trust the NHS to keep us safe and for the most part it does a brilliant job. But remember that as recently as January 2010, Dr Barton appeared before the General Medical Council, shortly before she retired, and was not struck off.

And a police culture which ended up “seeing the family members who complained as stirring up trouble” may not have been fully overturned.

The focus on Dr Barton — who argued that she acted with “care, concern and compassion” — should not distract from the catastrophe of a system which failed those it should have helped.

And, as we showed in our special investigation earlier this year, there are wider questions too for the NHS to answer about the mass prescription of addictive painkillers.

The specifics of the Gosport Hospital story are of course different: as were the drugs involved. But what matters is that our medical system is able to listen and act when people raise the alarm.

It should not have taken 30 years, and an independent report, to make this happen.

Artists’ eyes on the prize

The Evening Standard has always championed London’s art scene and we are proud to announce today the return of the Evening Standard Art Prize, which is back for its second year.

The artist behind the winning work will be revealed in a ceremony at the National Gallery in November and will walk away with £10,000, given in association with Hiscox.

We hope our prize — open to all UK artists over 18 — will help cultivate this country’s creative talent.

Last year it was won by the abstract artist HelenA Pritchard. This year’s theme is “progress”, a word that captures the spirit of London’s opportunity and optimism.

Unfold an easel and get to it.

Happy Birthday, in NZ

Congratulations to Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, and — as of 5.45am today — the happy mother of a baby daughter.

There shouldn’t be anything surprising about a woman with a busy job giving birth but it's sadly still the case that politics is mostly led by men. That’s changing.

Women have had the vote in New Zealand since 1893 and Ms Ardern is her country’s third female PM.

Now she’s the second leader, after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, to give birth in office and the first to take maternity leave.

Let’s hope soon such things are common enough not to be a talking point.