A troubling testimony in the Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths

A troubling testimony in the Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths has been recounted in the recent independent inquiry that deemed some 450 deaths at the hospital were linked to an unsafe opioid-use policy.

Families who have been fighting for an inquiry for years have finally received the news that they say they knew all along: that their loved-ones died in the hospital prematurely.

At the centre of the Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths scandal is Dr Jane Barton; the GP stationed there who claims that she was only ever doing the best for her patients. One particularly troubling testimony from 2001 that was recounted in the independent report paints a different story entirely.

Testimony over Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths

The independent inquiry into the Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths has recounted the testimony of a nurse, Pauline Spike, in 2001.

Ms Spike gave evidence to Hampshire police during their investigations into deaths at the hospital.

According to her testimony, she’d never heard of the syringe-driver method being used at the hospital before she started working there. The syringe-driver was attached to patients’ backs to ensure that a constant dose of life-shortening diamorphine (heroine) was being administered to patients.

In her testimony, Ms Spike said that she later came to understand that the method was used at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital for seriously ill patients.

Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths evidence given to police in 2001

Ms Spike told the police: “It was also clear to me that any patient put on to a syringe-driver would die shortly after. During the whole time I worked there I do not recall a single instance of a patient not dying having been put into a driver.”

Ms Spikes told of one incident involving an 80-year-old gentleman with stomach cancer who was capable of looking after himself and was a “lively” individual. She said: “One day I left work after my shift and he was his normal self. Upon returning to work the following day I was shocked to find him on a syringe-driver and unconscious.”

The man was reportedly left unconscious until he later died.

Gosport War Memorial Hospital deaths will lead to legal action

With the potential for criminal charges against Dr Barton and perhaps others who are found to have done nothing about the tragedies, and the findings of the independent inquiry, families of loved-ones who lost their lives at the hospital as a result of the bizarre opioid policy of using life-shortening diamorphine (heroine) may be entitled to take further legal action.