Hunt orders probe into faulty opioid syringe pumps amid allegations thousands may have died

Jeremy Hunt has ordered an urgent probe into the use of faulty syringe pumps across the NHS amid concerns their role in the Gosport deaths scandal was suppressed.

A whistleblower has alleged thousands of elderly patients may have been killed by the opioid-delivering devices and that the official Gosport inquiry deliberately overlooked their use to avoid a national scandal.

The Graseby MS 16A and MS 26 pumps, which had a “booster” switch but no “stop” button, were banned in the NHS from 2015, two decades after a safety watchdog first raised concerns.

But yesterday the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) admitted officials have been told to “urgently look into this matter to ensure no unsafe devices of this kind are being used”.

Designed in the 1970s, the battery-powered “drivers” were designed to deliver drugs automatically, relieving the need for clinicians to administer multiple injections.

As of 2001, around 40,000 devices were being used in up to 61 per cent of palliative care units, however doctors have described them as “really dangerous” because they allow the accidental or deliberate rapid infusion of dangerous drugs into the bloodstream.

While one model is set to deliver opioids over 24 hours, the other, which looks identical, performs the same task in 60 minutes, meaning patients risk being given a day’s worth of drugs in just one hour.

Doctors have said they resorted to sticking on makeshift aluminium strips so they could tell the difference.

Both models were in use at Gosport War Memorial Hospital during the tenure of Dr Jane Barton, who was last week held responsible for policies which led to the deaths of 656 patients between the late 1980s and 2001 due to excessive use of diamorphine by an inquiry led by the former Bishop of Liverpool.

Police questioned the GP about the devices in 2003 - to which she gave no comment - however in the Rt Reverend James Jones’s report, the drivers merit only two sentences.

Yesterday the Sunday Times reported allegations from a senior DHSC whistleblower that the report amounted to “one of the biggest cover-ups” in NHS history.

The source alleged the panel had decided to brush over the role of the devices after being warned a helpline and no-fault compensation fund would have to be established if they provoked a national scandal.

However, the inquiry has fiercely denied the allegations as “completely unfounded”, while Mr Hunt also defended the former Bishop’s independence.

Incident reports prompted the British medicine regulator to issue “hazardous product” and safety alerts on the drivers as early as 1995.

The following year inspectors in Scotland found they were causing “serious onverinfusion and fatality”.

The devices were withdrawn from use in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-2000s.

Despite this, as late as 2008 an NHS paper described them as an “essential component of British palliative care”.

In 2010 health chiefs finally banned the devices, but gave hospital bosses until 2015 to phase them out.

Dr Richard Ian Reid, a former colleague of Dr Barton at Gosport Memorial Hospital, told police he could not remember which Graseby device was which, saying they were “totally confusing” and “really dangerous”.

Meanwhile the whistleblower said: “Anyone who has lost their granny over the last 30 years when opiates were administered by this commonly used syringe driver will be asking themselves, “Is that what killed Granny?””

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Following a safety alert issued in 2010, these specific syringe drivers should have been withdrawn completely by the NHS by 2015.

“However, the Health Secretary has asked officials to urgently look into this matter, to ensure that no unsafe devices of this kind are being used.”

Speaking to Andrew Marr yesterday, Mr Hunt added also said officials would “look at weather the NHS did react quickly enough when it first found out about the safety consequences of these syringes.”

Three police investigations into Dr Barton’s actions have since been abandoned, however last week Mr Hunt said police and the Crown Prosecution Service would “carefully examine” whether new charges should be brought.