• 2 months ago
panorama.2019.01.21.killed.in.hospital
Transcript
00:00Tonight, on Panorama, we ask how could hundreds of patients be killed in one small British hospital?
00:10It just got worse and worse and began shouting at each other.
00:14I said, well, actually, you're murdering him, aren't you?
00:17All these people had their lives shortened in a place they went to get help.
00:23She didn't deserve that. She wasn't ready to go. She was a fan-loving lady.
00:28We hear from those who tried to stop the killing.
00:32What did I miss out in trying to convince the police?
00:36This was a case you have got to look into seriously.
00:42Mr Millett, hi.
00:43For the first time, we call people to account.
00:46Hundreds of people had their lives shortened. They were killed on your watch.
00:50Why didn't you protect them?
00:54Don't do that to the camera, please.
00:56And we confront the doctor being blamed for the deaths.
01:00Why did so many people lose their lives on that ward?
01:04This is the story of a community hospital with the darkest of secrets.
01:10Hundreds of people had their lives shortened.
01:14They were killed on your watch.
01:16Why didn't you protect them?
01:18Don't do that to the camera, please.
01:20And we confront the doctor being blamed for the deaths.
01:24Why didn't you protect them?
01:26Don't do that to the camera, please.
01:28Why didn't you protect them?
01:31Hundreds of people had their lives shortened here.
01:35People like war veteran Robert Wilson.
01:38He had health problems,
01:40but in 1998 went to hospital with a broken shoulder.
01:46He was funny.
01:48He was hilarious at times, you know.
01:51Like telling his stories of the Navy and D-Day.
01:55Like many other elderly patients,
01:58Robert was sent to Gosport War Memorial Hospital to recuperate.
02:03I thought he was getting better,
02:05and I thought, well, a few days in another place,
02:08he would be home sort of thing, you know.
02:11But it didn't work out that way.
02:19He was put on diamorphine, or medical heroin.
02:23Now, Robert was in pain, but these were huge doses,
02:28continuously pumped into him by this device, a syringe driver.
02:33He became unconscious.
02:35Two days later, he was dead.
02:41My last...
02:44My last memory of my dad was that he...
02:49As I left the room, I said,
02:51I said, I'll be back, Dad.
02:54And he lifted his hand, and he tried to reach out to me,
02:58and I left the room, and that was the last time I saw my father alive.
03:08Robert's death was not a one-off.
03:11In the 90s, many patients died here
03:14after being given strong painkillers in large doses.
03:19An official investigation found between 450 and 650 patients
03:25had their lives shortened.
03:28Hospital managers and consultants failed to stop it.
03:35The report said that, in here,
03:38there was a total disregard for human life.
03:42It said there was a culture of shortening lives.
03:49It's a peculiar phrase, shortening a life.
03:53If you're going to shorten anyone's life, what do you get called?
03:57You know, there's a word for it.
04:00If you shorten someone's life, you're a killer.
04:10That official investigation published a million pages of evidence
04:15about the deaths.
04:17We've spent months digging through the paperwork
04:21to try and work out why so many people lost their lives.
04:26Some of what we've found is shocking.
04:30There are documents about Robert Wilson.
04:33Remember, he was sent to Gosport to get better,
04:37but the nurse who admitted him concluded he was dying.
04:41The prognosis that I made was that he was being admitted
04:45for terminal care at Dryad Ward.
04:51Until we told them, the family were unaware of the nurse's assessment.
04:56What she said was, when your father arrived at the ward,
05:00he was being admitted for terminal care, that's what she said.
05:03Wow, that's unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
05:07My father, arriving at the War Memorial Hospital,
05:10he would have been discombobulated, confused,
05:13he would have been grumpy, and I think arriving in that state
05:17is pretty much what signed his death warrant.
05:24What is extraordinary is the expert appointed by the government
05:29to investigate concluded patients were killed by staff.
05:35I discovered in the records this phrase,
05:38please make comfortable, and I think that's described for me
05:42what seemed to have been going on,
05:44and I concluded that that may well have shortened
05:47the lives of some patients.
05:49Some may even have been able to leave hospital alive.
05:52So they were killed by the hospital?
05:54That was what I thought.
06:01The phrase, make comfortable,
06:03became a death sentence for hundreds of patients.
06:09And this is the GP who wrote it.
06:13Jane Barton was the main doctor on the wards between 1988 and 2000.
06:19In those years, the death rate doubled.
06:24She's never spoken to the media, but her husband defended her
06:28after the official report was published.
06:32She has always maintained that she was a hard-working, dedicated doctor,
06:38doing the best for her patients
06:40in a very inadequately resourced part of the health service.
06:46Many of those who died went to Gosport for rehabilitation
06:50after operations, like Ethel Thurston, who'd had her hip done.
06:55She'd been there four weeks when her niece visited.
07:00First time I saw her in Gosport, she was fine,
07:03but they said she hadn't been eating.
07:05And we laughed and we joked, and she was fine.
07:10Dr Barton saw Ethel the next day
07:13and prescribed a massive dose of diamorphine.
07:17She wrote...
07:20The following day, I went and there she was,
07:23laying completely...
07:27..white as a sheet.
07:29Comatose, as far as I thought she was comatose.
07:33And she took her last few breaths while I was there.
07:37It was a big dose. She'd never had it before.
07:40They must have known that it would kill her.
07:44When patients are dying,
07:46they are often made comfortable with powerful painkillers.
07:51But at Gosport, patients who weren't dying
07:54were still given massive doses.
07:57We want to know why.
07:59It's Richard Bilton here from the BBC.
08:02Did you work at Gosport?
08:04Yes, I did.
08:05And what did you do?
08:07I was a nurse.
08:09It's Richard Bilton here from the BBC.
08:12Did you work at Gosport Hospital?
08:15The nurses who worked on the wards must know.
08:18So were you there when Dr Barton was there?
08:21She just rang off.
08:23Some could still face prosecution
08:25because it was nurses who administered the drugs.
08:29Did you ever hear anything when you were there
08:31about people being concerned?
08:33No.
08:34Did you know Dr Barton? You liked her very much?
08:37Did you see anything like that? No.
08:40Would you be prepared to meet me and have a chat? Can't you?
08:45It's...it's really confusing
08:48because you do talk to nurses like that
08:51who say,
08:53I didn't see anything and all we did was have a kind of regime of care.
09:01Only one nurse would go on camera.
09:04She ran one of the wards where the official report
09:07says patients' lives were shortened.
09:12As far as I am concerned...
09:18..Dr Barton didn't shorten any lives on my ward.
09:23I mean, a lot of people who've read that report
09:26will think that you were right in the middle of this system
09:30of ending lives, killing people.
09:33Yeah. What would you say to those people?
09:36I would like to say that they were nursed to the best of my ability
09:40and they had what every patient is entitled to,
09:44peaceful, pain-free, dignity,
09:47and I mean dignified death.
09:50But is there a possibility that Dr Barton decided
09:53when end-of-life started and she decided that too early?
09:57Not on my ward, no. No.
10:06The files tell a different story.
10:09Some nurses did think patients were being killed.
10:13We found their police statements.
10:15They've never been reported before.
10:20It seemed most of the patients were going on drivers
10:24even when they were not in pain.
10:28I don't recall anyone going on to a syringe driver who did not die.
10:34I think that dimorphine was used to keep the waiting lists down.
10:40It got to the stage that every time Dr Barton came to the annex,
10:44I would think to myself, who's going to die now?
10:49I remain deeply upset and feel terribly guilty
10:52about one particular death.
10:55This auxiliary nurse is talking about a patient called Dennis Brickwood.
11:01He had a hip operation and went to Gosport for rehab.
11:06We just felt that each week, if you like,
11:08he was just getting better and better, fitter and fitter.
11:11He didn't seem to be complaining of pain.
11:13Not once did we... You might say,
11:15oh, I had a bit of an achy back, but then he was in bed.
11:20But the auxiliary nurse was concerned.
11:23She thought Dennis was exaggerating his symptoms
11:26and that could be dangerous.
11:29I remember having a conversation with one of the other auxiliaries.
11:33We agreed if he wasn't careful,
11:35he would talk himself on to a syringe driver.
11:40Dr Barton did prescribe diamorphine by syringe driver
11:45and told staff to make Dennis comfortable.
11:49When the family arrived, they found him unconscious.
11:54They confronted a senior nurse.
11:57I said, what's up with Dad?
11:59He said, oh, he's fine, he's fine, he's at peace.
12:02He's at peace, he's not in any pain.
12:04You said, when will Dad wake up? When will he wake up?
12:07And he said, oh, no, no, he won't wake up.
12:10So Graeme said, why? He said, oh, no, he won't wake up.
12:13So Graeme said, well, can't you take it out?
12:15He said, oh, no, no, we can't take it out.
12:17He's at fine, all this... He's at peace.
12:19He's fine, he's at peace.
12:26The auxiliary says she confronted the same senior nurse.
12:33Until we told them,
12:35Dennis' family never knew one of the staff tried to protect him.
12:40This is what she told the police.
12:42Knowing Mr Brickwood, as I did,
12:45I am confident that he would not have allowed
12:47the introduction of a syringe driver
12:49had he known of the outcome.
12:51Yeah. That's, er...
12:54How does that feel to hear that?
12:56That feels awful. Yeah, it's dreadful.
12:59That feels really awful.
13:01He wasn't 100%, but we're adamant as a family
13:05that he wasn't ready to go at that particular time.
13:08No way. And at that moment, no way.
13:14A day after the syringe driver was switched on, Dennis died.
13:22Dr Barton wrote the prescription that led to his death
13:26and hundreds of others like it.
13:29I want to know why, but she hasn't answered any of our questions.
13:34Dr Barton, hi, it's Richard Bilton from BBC News.
13:39Dr Barton goes into her garage.
13:42Could I ask you a quick question, please?
13:44But her husband comes out.
13:46Sir, can I just ask... I'm from BBC Panorama.
13:49Oh, I know who you are. Yeah, and I wrote and asked some questions
13:52and Dr Barton didn't answer them, so...
13:54This is all so you can just say you gave us every opportunity
13:57to talk to you.
14:00No, I asked you questions which I hoped you'd answer.
14:02And now I'd like to put those questions to Dr Barton.
14:04It's a very complicated story.
14:06And we've not heard from her.
14:08The advice we've had is not to speak to the media.
14:10Why did so many people lose their lives in that hospital?
14:13Have their lives shortened? They were killed.
14:15Oh, you're suggesting that she murdered them now?
14:17Is that what you're suggesting? I'm suggesting that 400...
14:19You said they were killed.
14:21400 people had their lives shortened, which I think is killed, isn't it?
14:24Um... There's a lot of people who have died.
14:28Um... Isn't it? 400 people had their lives shortened.
14:33Shortened as opposed to killed.
14:36So why hasn't she not been charged with murder?
14:38Why hasn't she been charged with murder, then? I don't know.
14:41All right, well, then, perhaps you have to address
14:43these questions to the police.
14:47Well, Hampshire Police have investigated Dr Barton three times.
14:53The first death they looked at was a complex one.
14:5791-year-old Gladys Richards had dementia,
15:01but she went to Gospel to recover from a hip operation.
15:05Dr Barton had written up,
15:08frail, elderly lady, not obviously in pain.
15:13I am quite happy for nursing staff to confirm death.
15:22Dr Barton prescribed diamorphine via syringe driver.
15:27Four days after it started, Gladys died.
15:33So I rang up the police and said,
15:35I have concerns over my mother's death
15:38and I wish to lodge an allegation of unlawful killing.
15:43He said, there, there, my dear,
15:45you're upset over the death of your mother.
15:48I said, no, let's get this straight.
15:52I am reporting this on points of law.
15:58But the police didn't take it seriously
16:01and the deaths continued for another two years.
16:06I am upset that there was something I didn't do.
16:13I'm sorry.
16:15Something I didn't do, something I didn't say,
16:18something I overlooked,
16:20that there were 60 more deaths after my mother's death.
16:23How else could...
16:25What did I miss out in trying to convince the police,
16:29this was a case you have got to look into seriously?
16:39There were two further police investigations,
16:42but nobody has been charged.
16:45In October, the Chief Constable came to apologise
16:48to the Gosport families for her force's failings.
16:52She wouldn't do an interview, so I caught up with her as she left.
16:57Chief Constable, I have to ask you some questions.
17:00One message to the people of Gosport,
17:02because the two people they trusted in this situation
17:04were the hospital, who initially cared for their loved ones,
17:07and then the police.
17:08When things went wrong, they looked to the police
17:10and both of those institutions failed.
17:12What do you say to them?
17:13I say what I said in June,
17:14and I've said again privately to the families today.
17:16Yes, Hampshire Constabulary, in our part,
17:18were one of many institutions that failed those families
17:21over that period.
17:22There is so much learning for us as a society,
17:25as a range of agencies.
17:26I know my organisation is taking that very seriously
17:29and we are playing our part, but so are so many others,
17:32and that's where this focus needs to be.
17:37The deaths should have been stopped
17:40long before the police became involved.
17:44Back in 1991, right at the start of the killing,
17:48a group of nurses warned about what was happening on the wards.
17:53They said not all patients given diamorphine have pain.
17:58The drug regime is used indiscriminately,
18:03that patients' deaths are sometimes hastened unnecessarily.
18:10The nurses were right on every count,
18:13but when they put their concerns to Dr Barton and the hospital managers,
18:17they were told they were wrong.
18:19The nurses were sent back to the wards
18:22and hundreds more people were killed.
18:28I think that's very dangerous information to ignore.
18:32Why?
18:35People are going to come to harm as a result,
18:37so I don't know how to defend it.
18:41Yet managers did ignore it.
18:43It would appear so, yes.
18:46And people died as a result.
18:48That's correct.
18:52One man could have stopped the killing.
18:56Any fresh pair of eyes coming in from outside
18:59can only help frontline clinical teams improve their practice.
19:03Max Millett was the manager of Gosport Hospital.
19:07He then became the boss of the hospital trust.
19:11He was told about the nurses' complaints in 1991 and didn't act.
19:18So all these deaths could have been avoided.
19:25There were other warnings,
19:27including the police investigating death on the wards.
19:32From the time he was first warned, there were 400 more deaths.
19:38This was a hospital that was killing people, and he ran it.
19:44Mr Millett says we should talk to the NHS,
19:47but these are questions only he can answer.
19:52Mr Millett, hi. It's Richard Bilton from BBC Panorama.
19:55Did you run a hospital that killed people, sir?
19:58Hundreds of people had their lives shortened.
20:00They were killed on your watch.
20:02Why didn't you protect them?
20:04And why did you ignore the warnings, sir?
20:06People want to know, why did you ignore those warnings?
20:09Nothing to add to the story.
20:11But in 91, mid-90s, 98, 99,
20:13there were loads of warnings and people kept dying.
20:16Sir, this is your chance. Just give us your side.
20:19Just answer the question, sir. Mr Millett.
20:22Oh, Mr Millett.
20:25It's so frustrating.
20:27There are so many questions about this story,
20:30how it could happen, why it could happen.
20:33That man was in charge.
20:35He's never answered those questions and he hasn't today.
20:38That's so frustrating.
20:47Max Millett was in charge,
20:49but he didn't write the prescriptions that killed people.
20:55She did.
20:57Jane Barton was disciplined by the General Medical Council in 2010
21:02for serious misconduct,
21:04but she wasn't struck off and she retired.
21:08Consultants who'd approved her practices weren't investigated.
21:13Dr Barton said she was overworked
21:16and patients were too poorly for rehab.
21:19Many former colleagues agree.
21:22I know at one time, if I can say it on television,
21:27we thought we were a dumping ground.
21:30A dumping ground?
21:32Yeah. They were blocking acute medical beds
21:36and we had the empty beds.
21:39They were sent to us.
21:41We were hoping we could, you know, rehabilitate them,
21:45which we did, we tried,
21:47but it soon became apparent that they were nursing care
21:50and they had damn good nursing care, I tell you,
21:53but they weren't rehabilitation.
21:56What did that mean then for the patient?
21:59They were with us until they died.
22:08But Dr Barton's drugs accelerated those deaths.
22:13By 2002, dozens of families had gone to the police
22:18and a major investigation was looking at 94 deaths.
22:24The officer in charge is talking about the case for the first time.
22:29This is probably the most significant investigation
22:33that I was involved in, in over 31 years of policing.
22:37My view was that there was sufficient evidence
22:40to put the matter before a court
22:42and there was an overriding public interest
22:45in putting the matter before a court.
22:48Were people murdered in Gosport Hospital?
22:51I can't say that.
22:53It's not my job to decide upon charges.
22:56I gather evidence and I put them before the Crown Prosecution Service.
22:59It's for them to decide what charges are relevant.
23:05Documents show the CPS looked at possible charges
23:09of manslaughter and murder.
23:12One of the ten cases prosecutors examined was this man's stepfather.
23:20Brian Cunningham went to Gosport to be treated for a painful bedsore.
23:27I went to the hospital and on the way in,
23:30you were asked at the reception desk,
23:32where is my stepfather, Brian Cunningham?
23:35I said, I was in Dryad Ward.
23:37I remember somebody in the cubicle said,
23:40ah, mate, that's the death ward.
23:46When he arrived at hospital,
23:48Brian was distressed and became abusive towards staff.
23:55Though he was very ill,
23:57Dr Barton knew Brian's condition was not yet terminal.
24:01But she still prescribed a lethal diamorphine syringe driver
24:06the same day.
24:09She wrote...
24:18And as soon as I saw this stuck in my stepfather
24:21and knew exactly what was going on,
24:23they were actually disposing of him.
24:25His life has been terminated.
24:27I said, look, I'd like to speak to Brian.
24:30Will you please remove the syringe driver,
24:32allow him to recover enough for me to speak to him?
24:35And she said, well, I'm not going to agree.
24:37I can't agree to this.
24:38And it just got worse and worse,
24:41and we began shouting at each other.
24:44I said, well, actually, you're murdering him, aren't you?
24:50Prosecutors decided there wasn't a reasonable chance
24:54of securing a conviction.
24:56Despite detectives reviewing thousands of pages of evidence
25:01and taking more than 800 witness statements,
25:05no-one has ever faced justice.
25:09What did you think when they said,
25:11we're not going to press ahead, we're not going to bring charges?
25:14I thought it was a big mistake. Why?
25:17Because I knew what the response of the families was going to be,
25:21I knew what the response of the public was going to be,
25:24and I do recall talking to the prosecutors
25:28and saying that this will end up in a public inquiry
25:31and eventually I think the matter will go before a court.
25:40All of these people in one small town.
25:44Their lives cut short by a hospital that should have protected them.
25:49The killing went on for more than a decade and no-one stopped it.
25:55My father didn't want to die like that.
25:59He had life left in him, 75.
26:01You know, he could have been going into his 80s,
26:04maybe even his 90s, I don't know.
26:08That was taken away.
26:10My father's life was ended by someone else.
26:18She was a poor lady who didn't have a job,
26:22she was a poor lady who didn't fully understand what was going on.
26:26She didn't deserve that.
26:28She wasn't ready to go, she was a fun-loving lady.
26:33I want Barton charged in the criminal court,
26:36I would put it as murder,
26:38intent that these patients were not going to survive.
26:45The allegations against Dr Barton could not be more serious.
26:50She's accused of drugging hundreds of patients to death
26:55and I still want to get the answers the families need.
27:02Dr Barton?
27:04Hi, it's Richard Bilson, I'm from BBC Panorama.
27:07I just want to ask you a couple of questions.
27:09I've tried very hard...
27:11Don't do that to the camera, please.
27:13Can you tell me why hundreds of people died on that ward?
27:17Let me just... It's just a question.
27:20Dr Barton... She has said she does not want to speak.
27:23Why did so many people lose their lives on that ward?
27:26Because the families, they say that they want justice.
27:29Do you understand why they might want to see you on trial?
27:33Could you just tell our viewers, Dr Barton,
27:35what happened on those wards?
27:37Just one last question, Dr Barton.
27:39What happened on those wards?
27:49The question, what happened on those wards,
27:52is being asked again by a new team from Kent and Essex Police.
27:57They're reviewing 30 years of evidence.
28:00But the man who ran the last investigation
28:03says there's already enough to bring charges.
28:07Do you think the evidence will ever be strong enough
28:09to go before a court?
28:11I think it's strong enough now.
28:13I think it was strong enough then.
28:15And I think there was an overriding public interest in it doing so.
28:20The Gosport families have been waiting decades for justice.
28:25There are still hundreds of people suffering
28:29because of the hospital that killed people.
28:49♪♪♪