Chapter 9: The local and national media
Media coverage from 2011 to the announcement of the Gosport Independent Panel
On 10 April 2013, the Press Association ran a long report covering the inquest into the death of Gladys Richards. Under the headline “Drugs ensured my mother’s death”, the Press Association reported:
“The daughter of an elderly woman who died at a heavily criticised hospital nearly 15 years ago has said her mother was ‘condemned to death’ by the medication she was given.
Gladys Richards, 91, was taken to Gosport War Memorial Hospital (GWMH) in Hampshire in August 1998 for recuperation from a hip operation after she had a fall.
But after she suffered a haematoma (bruised blood), Mrs Richards, of Lee-on-the-Solent, Hants, was given diamorphine administered through a syringe driver (a device which continuously administers drugs) and died five days later on August 21 1998, the hearing was told.” (SOH100686, p1)
Four days later, the Press Association reported the hospital’s defence under the headline “Woman, 91, given pain medication":
“The clinical manager at a heavily-criticised hospital where an elderly patient died nearly 15 years ago has told an inquest that she was given medication to help ease her pain in her final days after her condition deteriorated.
Philip Beed, a nurse in charge of the Daedalus ward at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital (GWMH), said that when patients such as Gladys Richards were placed on syringe drivers, a device which continuously administers drugs, they were likely to die.”
Local media also covered the inquest. On 11 April, under the headline “Doctors disagree over use of drugs”, the Southern Daily Echo reported:
“Dr Richard Reid, a consultant then at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, said, on the basis of medical guidelines and that Mrs Richards was described in the medical notes as still in pain, the dose given to Mrs Richards ‘feels entirely appropriate.’
He said Mrs Richards’ survival for a further four days after it was administered told him that increasing the dosage was ‘unlikely to have been responsible for her demise’.
However, Professor Robin Ferner, a consultant physician and clinical pharmacologist from Birmingham University, told the Portsmouth inquest that while it was right to ensure that patients were not in pain, it might have been achieved with ‘substantially lower doses’.
Prof Ferner said it was ‘very likely’ that giving diamorphine by injection alongside other drugs ‘rendered Mrs Richards too drowsy to take oral fluids, increased the risk of her developing renal failure and hastened her death’.
He said he also found it difficult to explain, given the absence in the records, why there had been a switch from oral to injected medication.” (SOH100664, p1)
On 18 April, the Press Association reported the outcome of the inquest into the death of Mrs Richards. Under the headline “Medication ‘a factor’ in death case”, the Press Association stated: “A coroner has ruled that medication given to an elderly patient at a heavily-criticised hospital contributed ‘more than insignificantly’ to her death” (GMC000540, pp3–7).
Further media coverage was prompted by the publication in August of Professor Baker’s report, nearly ten years after he had completed it. The Department of Health’s press release stated: “Professor Baker made 5 recommendations in his report. These have been largely overtaken by developments since the review was carried out” (CPS100312, p1).
On 8 September, Nina Lakhani reported the findings of the Baker Report in the Independent on Sunday, suggesting that the Government would grant an independent inquiry. Under the headline “Gosport hospital deaths to get public inquiry at last; Ten years after a ‘death audit’ was triggered by claims of opiate overuse, ministers are set to act”, the article stated:
“An independent inquiry into the deaths of dozens of elderly patients given ‘life-shortening’ powerful painkillers at a Hampshire hospital will be announced by ministers within weeks.
The inquiry will address the findings of a damning audit into deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital published last month, a senior government figure told The Independent on Sunday.
The audit by Professor Richard Baker, a patient safety expert from the University of Leicester who also worked on the Harold Shipman inquiry, found morphine and other powerful sedatives were routinely prescribed to elderly patients in Gosport between 1988 and 2000, even if they were not in pain.
A ‘remarkably high’ proportion of patients were given opiate injections before death, the Baker report states. The ‘routine’ use of these powerful drugs ‘almost certainly shortened the lives of some patients’, some of whom might have survived their illness and been ‘discharged from hospital alive’.
Professor Baker’s recommendations included investigations into individual deaths, and a study of shift patterns to ascertain whether deaths were linked to particular nurses and doctors.
Serious concerns about the liberal use of opiates among elderly patients at Gosport were first reported by nurses in 1991, but continued for another decade. Complaints from families in 1998 eventually led to three police investigations, 11 belated inquests and a professional misconduct hearing.
The Baker report was suppressed by the Department of Health for almost 10 years on the grounds that it could interfere with these proceedings. The report has reignited families’ calls for an independent inquiry into the deaths and subsequent ‘flawed’ investigations which were mired by delays.
The senior source said an inquiry should also examine confidential documents held by the police, Crown Prosecution Service, NHS and government departments, so relatives’ outstanding questions and cover-up allegations could be addressed.” (OSM100958, p1)