Gosport hospital deaths: Concerns raised over police funding

More than 450 patients died after being given painkilling drugs at Gosport War Memorial Hospital

The Home Office should pay more towards the criminal investigation into hundreds of deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, Hampshire's police and crime commissioner (PCC) has said.

PCC Donna Jones said "Britain's largest murder investigation" was costing Hampshire Constabulary £2m a year.

Detectives from another force began analysing patient records after an inquiry into deaths of 456 patients.

The Home Office said it had contributed through the Police Special Grant.

Hampshire police, which botched three previous probes, handed over the new inquiry - named Operation Magenta - to Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate after a damning report was published in 2018.

About 150 serving and retired detectives have been analysing 700 patient records and 15,000 death certificates.

It followed the Gosport Independent Panel (GIRP) report which found there was a "disregard for human life" of a large number of patients at the hospital between 1987 and 2001.

Speaking at a Police and Crime Panel meeting in Winchester, Ms Jones said the force is paying £2m a year for the next three years towards the investigation, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

She said: 'If this was a national publicly-ordered inquiry such as Hillsborough this would have a different funding package - but this is being treated as a murder investigation and therefore the responsibility falls upon the chief constable."

She described Operation Magenta as an "incredibly large investigation".

"It's disgraceful and appalling, and the sheer volume of criminality that I think is coming out of the investigation is horrendous. What's more, we could be waiting another three to four years," she added.

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David Wilson, nephew of 86-year-old Dulcie Middleton, whose death in 2001 is the subject of one of the inquests opened last month, criticised the PCC for "looking elsewhere" for the costs to be covered.

"At the end of the day, it's still the taxpayer who is paying the price for this, and they have done so for far too many years," he added.

The Home Office said Hampshire's PCC had received £5.3m of funding from the Police Special Grant since Operation Magenta began in 2019

Government ministers have also agreed to provide up to £6.5m of further funding in 2021-22.

Three previous investigations into 92 of the deaths by Hampshire Constabulary resulted in no charges being brought.

The GIRP report concluded there was an "institutionalised regime" of prescribing and administering "dangerous" amounts of a medication not clinically justified at the hospital.

It said Dr Jane Barton, who was found guilty of serious professional misconduct in 2010, oversaw the practice of prescribing on the wards.