Police investigation into troubled stroke unit

Blackpool Victoria Hospital is under investigation by Lancashire Police

Police are investigating potential corporate failings contributing to the death, ill-treatment or neglect of patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital's stroke unit, the BBC has learned.

Offences under consideration by Lancashire Police include corporate manslaughter, corporate ill-treatment and wilful neglect, and offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The investigation was launched in October 2023 after the prosecution of five health care workers for a number of drug offences, with two of them jailed for sedating or conspiring to sedate patients to keep them quiet.

Lancashire Police would not comment on which patients the investigation - focused on 2014 to 2018 - related to.

The 2023 trial of nurse Catherine Hudson, 54, and healthcare worker Charlotte Wilmot, 48, heard patients had been given powerful sedative zopiclone.

The prosecution described the situation around the hospital's pharmacy as a "free for all".

Between September and October 2018 alone, the court was told, more than 1,100 Zopiclone tablets were dispensed, despite only 207 having been recorded as prescribed.

None of the patients relating to the convictions in 2023 died but the police investigation, known as Operation Bermuda, made a number of unexpected discoveries, including the violent death of Valerie Kneale in November 2018.

An inquest into 75-year-old Mrs Kneale's death concluded last week that she was unlawfully killed, having bled to death days after a sexual assault in the hospital in 2018.

A separate six-year murder investigation, Operation Jordan was unable to find the killer.

The investigation into corporate failings is not linked to her death.

A six-year murder investigation was unable to find who was responsible for Valerie Kneale's death

In 2021, the BBC's North West Tonight revealed police were also looking at the deaths of eight other patients in 2018 in relation to allegations of mistreatment and neglect as part of Operation Bermuda.

The investigation is ongoing, the patients' inquests have not yet been held.

There is no suggestion that their deaths are linked to the Hudson and Wimot trial in 2023.

A police spokesman said: "The families of the patients who feature within the investigation are aware and continue to be supported by specially trained officers.

"This is a complex and extensive investigation.

"We cannot comment further at this time, but we will provide updates when we are in a position to do so."

In a statement, the trust - which has undergone extensive leadership changes since 2018 – said: "We are cooperating fully with the police investigation into incidents occurring in 2018.

"It would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage."