Gosport inquiry - LIVE: Doctor 'responsible' for use of lethal levels of opiates which killed at least 450, inquiry finds

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Gosport hospital deaths: Norman Lamb accuses the NHS of closing ranks after deaths of elderly patients from alleged overprescribed painkiller drugs

Up to 650 patients died from lethal doses of opiate painkillers given “without medical justification” over a 12 year period at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire, a major public inquiry has found.

The Gosport Independent Panel found evidence of opioid use without an appropriate clinical justification in 456 of the patients who died, but taking into account the missing records it concludes there are “probably at least another 200 patients were similarly affected”.

Campaigners have called for prosecutions to follow the publication of the findings.

Later on Wednesday the government will give a statement on future prosecutions for the deaths after the report said the “institutionalised practice of shortening lives” between 1989 and 2000 was introduced by Dr Jane Barton.

The inquiry was led by the former bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, who previously chaired the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

“The documents seen by the Panel show that for a 12 year period a clinical assistant, Dr Barton, was responsible for the practice of prescribing which prevailed on the wards,” the inquiry chair Bishop of Liverpool James Jones said.

A separate review into deaths at the hospital, led by Professor Richard Baker, found "almost routine use of opiates" for elderly patients had "almost certainly shortened the lives of some".

That report could not be published in full until 2013, 10 years after it was completed, while inquests were held and due to a police investigation.

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In 2010, the General Medical Council ruled that Dr Jane Barton, who has since retired, was guilty of multiple instances of professional misconduct relating to 12 patients who died at the hospital.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt is due to address MPs on the findings of the Gosport inquiry, and will face questions about the previous investigations and whether charges should now be brought.

Cindy Grant's father, Stanley Carby, died at the hospital in 1999 after being admitted for rehabilitation following a stroke.

She said: "I think there is somebody that needs to be prosecuted for what's gone on there."

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We want justice to be served because these families' lives were taken - mums, dads, grandads, grandmas.

"We all know what went on at that hospital. We want justice served."

Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd, whose constituent, Gillian McKenzie, was the first to go to Hampshire Police in 1998 with concerns over the death of her mother, said lives might have been saved if she had been taken more seriously.

"If the police had taken her seriously, if the senior managers at the hospital had taken her seriously earlier, bluntly it appears that lives would have been saved.

"That is a shocking, shocking indictment of this entire process."

Mr Lloyd criticised the investigations carried out by the police and NHS, adding: "We finish finally with the GMC many years later finding that Dr Barton did overuse opiates and they didn't even debar her."

"I think it has been an absolute travesty for 20 years," he told Today.

The Eastbourne MP said: "If the report is as strong as I - and I think the relatives - anticipate, then I will be quizzing Jeremy Hunt directly and I will be saying to him that certain individuals should be facing criminal prosecution."

Key Points

• GP 'responsible' for practice of lethal opiate prescribing which killed at least 450 patients​
• Full statement from bishop James Jones, who led inquiry
• Health secretary Jeremy Hunt gives a statement to parliament

[20 June 2018 14:55 · Adam Withnall]

[20 June 2018 14:58 · Adam Withnall]

A reminder about what happened earlier in the Commons: 

Jeremy Hunt said medical bodies would not be able to put their hand on their hearts and say they kept patients safe in the period when hundreds of people had their lives shortened at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.

The Health Secretary said the General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council have very difficult questions to answer after the publication of a damning report into a pattern of concerning opioid prescribing between 1989 and 2000.

Mr Hunt answered questions from MPs on the report, during which Tory Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) said the GMC is effectively doctors policing themselves and asked: "Isn't it time that the system has to change?"

The Cabinet minister said those questions had to be asked.

"I think that there are some very difficult questions for the GMC and the NMC to answer in this report because their processes took so long; I don't think they could put their hand on their hearts and say they kept patients safe in that period," Mr Hunt told the Commons.

[20 June 2018 15:05 · Adam Withnall]

Stephen Morgan, Labour MP for Portsmouth South, a constituency with families affected by the tragedy, has tweeted his comments to Parliament earlier this afternoon. 

[20 June 2018 15:29 · Adam Withnall]

We're finishing up our live coverage of today's developments in the Gosport scandal. Head here for all you need to know about the findings of today's inquiry.