Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths: Inquiry seeks relatives

Inquests into the deaths of 10 patients, seven of whom are pictured, were held in 2009

An inquiry panel investigating the deaths of dozens of elderly patients at a Hampshire hospital is appealing for relatives to come forward.

A review into the fatalities at Gosport War Memorial Hospital between 1988 and 2000 found an "almost routine use of opiates had almost certainly" shortened the lives of some patients.

Police investigated the deaths of 92 patients but brought no prosecutions.

The Gosport Independent Panel's inquiry is due to conclude at the end of 2017.

The former Bishop of Liverpool James Jones is the chairman of the inquiry

The panel, which was set up in December 2014, urged families with concerns over the treatment of their deceased relatives between the 1980s and early 2000s to get in touch.

Advertisements are being placed in newspapers in Portsmouth, Southampton and Bournemouth, in Dorset.

Chairman, the former Bishop of Liverpool James Jones, who also chaired the Hillsborough inquiry, said six investigations into the deaths had already taken place.

Since the panel was launched, he said the number of families it was in touch with had tripled.

However, he said some had not yet come forward and assured them if they did they would be treated "in the strictest confidence".

Gladys Richards, 91, died at Gosport Memorial Hospital in August 1998

The inquiry panel will not hear evidence but it will analyse documents from the police, coroners, NHS and other organisations the families dealt with, before writing its report.

Bishop Jones said the findings would first be shared with the families, before going to parliament.

The panel also includes geriatric medicine specialist Dr Colin Currie, investigative journalist David Hencke, former Scotland Yard Commander Duncan Jarrett and pathology and medical records expert Dr Bill Kirkup.

Inquests into 10 deaths at the hospital in 2009 found drugs were a contributory factor in some cases.

In 2013 a coroner gave a narrative verdict at the inquest into the death of Gladys Richards, of Lee-on-the-Solent, and said painkillers and sedatives given to the 91-year-old "more than insignificantly" contributed to her death in 1998.

Dr Jane Barton was found guilty of serious professional misconduct in 2010

In 2010 the General Medical Council found Dr Jane Barton guilty of a series of failings in her care of 12 patients treated at the hospital between 1996 and 1999.

Dr Barton was found to have prescribed "potentially hazardous" levels of drugs to patients who later died at the hospital.

Despite the council's findings, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence for a prosecution on gross negligence manslaughter charges.