The Guardian view on the Gosport hospital deaths: the families vindicated at last | Editorial
At long last, relatives of hundreds who died in the Gosport War Memorial hospital in the 1990s have had some answers, thanks to an inquiry chaired by the Right Rev James Jones. The former bishop of Liverpool, who also chaired the Hillsborough panel, was initially in touch with eight families, and ended up in contact with 100. His report now concludes, shockingly, that more than 450 lives were shortened unnecessarily after they were given inappropriate doses of opioids. The drugs were administered using a syringe driver, normally reserved for pain relief for those at the very end of life. These patients were frail, elderly and sick – but had every hope of recovery. That possible future was taken from them.
One of the most distressing elements of the case is that concerns were raised by nurses as long ago as 1991, but the hospital authorities chose not to act. When relatives began to make complaints, they were often treated with disdain, brushed off as irritants. The Gosport families have shown extraordinary bravery, despite years of obfuscation and inaction, despite the sense that the establishment had closed ranks to protect their own people and institutions – a complex, interleaved collection of bodies including the hospital itself, the Hampshire constabulary, the Crown Prosecution Service, the General Medical Council and the General Nursing Council.
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