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Police to probe 'Doctor Opiate' in wake of Gosport War Memorial Hospital inquiry scandal

Findings: the panel concluded that Dr Jane Barton was responsible for the way the hospital prescribed opioids: PA
Findings: the panel concluded that Dr Jane Barton was responsible for the way the hospital prescribed opioids: PA

Police today said they were examining “new information” from the report into the Gosport Hospital scandal raising fresh hopes of a new criminal inquiry.

The authorities are under growing pressure to take action over the deaths of hundreds of patients at the Hampshire hospital after an independent report found there was “a disregard for human life.”

One relative of a woman who died at the hospital under the care of Dr Jane Barton today called for cases to be “fast tracked to the Crown Prosecution Service” slamming previous inquiries as a “shambles.”

Families demanded that the GP blamed over the failings must face justice after the report accused her of presiding over a system which gave patients powerful drugs they did not need.

The study revealed that 465 patients had their lives shortened after being prescribed powerful opiate painkillers at Gosport War Memorial Hospital. Another 200 patients may also have suffered a similar fate but their records have been lost.

Hampshire police conducted three separate inquiries over 12 years investigating more than 91 deaths but no-one was ever prosecuted.

Now Hampshire Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney said the inquiry panel had sight of information “not previously seen” by the force.

She said: “It is important that a process is put in place to ensure that all of the relevant agencies come together, to enable decisions about next steps to be made in a way that is well considered and transparent to all of the families.”

Her comments came as a respected health safety expert said it was “likely” that other scandals similar to Gosport are happening in the NHS.

Sir Brian Jarman, Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London, said he did not believe it was a one-off claiming that there was still a refusal in parts of the health system to recognise failings.

He told BBC radio: “There really is a desire not to know.”

He believes whistleblowers are still reluctant to lift the lid on malpractices because of the risk of being “fired, gagged and blacklisted” and that data on mortality rates is still not being fully and properly assessed.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt also admitted that doctors and nurses still found it too difficult to blow the whistle on malpractice on the wards.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he said the “blame” culture in the NHS has to change to help uncover scandals such as the deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.

He said: “In an organisation of 1.4 million people, unfortunately you are going to get malpractice, you are going to get some people who do the wrong thing.

“You can never say that that will be totally eliminated but I do think we would find out about that much, much sooner these days with all the things we have put in place.”

He said: “The basic problem is that if you are a doctor or a nurse and you see something going wrong - even if you are perhaps responsible for a mistake yourself - the most important thing, the thing that families want if they are bereaved or if they have a tragedy, is to know that the NHS isn’t going to make that mistake again.

“We make it much too hard for doctors and nurses to do that - they are worried that there will be litigation, they will go up in front of the GMC or NMC, the reputation of their unit - in some places they are worried they might get fired, so we do have to tackle that blame culture and turn that into a learning culture.”

The Gosport scandal had revealed failure at “every level of the institutions of the British state,” he added, stressing: “We have to learn every possible lesson.”

The damning report published yesterday revealed that more than 450 people had their lives shortened after being prescribed powerful painkillers at the Hampshire hospital.

The lives of at least 450 people were shortened by the administration of opioids at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, a report has found (PA)
The lives of at least 450 people were shortened by the administration of opioids at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, a report has found (PA)

An additional 200 patients were “probably” similarly given opioids between 1989 and 2000 without medical justification.

It revealed “there was a disregard for human life and a culture of shortening lives of a large number of patients” at the Hampshire hospital.

The report added: “There was an institutionalised regime of prescribing and administering ‘dangerous doses’ of a hazardous combination of medication not clinically indicated or justified, with patients and relatives powerless in their relationship with professional staff.”

Concerns were first raised by nurses in 1991 but these warnings went “unheeded”.

The study criticised previous police inquiries saying detectives did not pursue a “wider investigation” into what was going on at the hospital and instead focused on the actions of one doctor.

Officers at every level were obsessed with the “long shadow” of the cawee of GP Harold Shipman who was convicted of killing 15 patients.

They suspected Dr Burton of being a “lone wolf” a perception that “rapidly took root”, the report said.

In a statement the Crown Prosecution Service said: “We will consider the contents of the report, but we can only act if new evidence is identified by the police and sent to us for a charging decision.

The CPS can only reconsider any previous charging decisions if new evidence is given to us by the police.