A shocking report published last week has found that over 450 patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire died due to the over-prescription of medication over a period of around ten years, from 1989 to 2000.
According to the BBC, the report commented that ‘there was an institutionalised regime of prescribing and administering dangerous doses of a hazardous combination of medication not clinically indicated or justified, with patients and relative powerless in their relationship with professional staff.’
Despite concerns expressed by both the relatives of the some of the patients affected and nurses involved in the care of those patients, it appears that there was no intervention in the prescribing practice. It was not until 2010 that the General Medical Council found Dr Barton, in charge of the prescription of drugs at the time, guilty of serious professional misconduct.
Norman Lamb, former Health Minister, is reported as saying, “there has been a real systemic failure here…..and an unwillingness by the NHS to face up to some really serious allegations about what happened in that hospital.”
Medical negligence
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