Dr. Harold Shipman is a well-known name to many followers of this blog. The start of his Wikipedia page:
“Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English doctor in general practice and serial killer. He is considered to be one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history, with an estimated 250 victims over roughly 30 years. On 31 January 2000, Shipman was convicted of murdering 15 patients under his care. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order. On 13 January 2004, one day before his 58th birthday, Shipman hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield, West Yorkshire.”
It would be fair to say that Dr Harold Shipman is a name well-known to British people in particular. Not so, that of Dr Jane Barton. She does not, seemingly, merit her own Wikipedia page.
I turn to the Gosport War Memorial Hospital 1990s opioid deaths scandal (Wikipedia link). The start of the page:
“The Gosport War Memorial Hospital 1990s opioid deaths scandal arose from the premature shortening of life of over 400 patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, Hampshire, England by use of opioid drugs and apparent failures by relevant authorities to detect the issue in a timely manner and for subsequent inadequate investigations into the issues.”
Later on the page:
“On 20 June 2018, after an enquiry, which took four years and cost £14 million, the Gosport Independent Panel published a report which found that 456 deaths in the 1990s had ‘followed inappropriate administration of opioid drugs’. In his introduction, Bishop James Jones says:
“The shocking outcome of the Panel’s work is that we have now been able to conclude that the lives of over 450 patients were shortened while in the hospital … during a certain period at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, there was a disregard for human life and a culture of shortening the lives of a large number of patients by prescribing and administering ‘dangerous doses’ of a hazardous combination of medication not clinically indicated or justified … when relatives complained about the safety of patients and the appropriateness of their care, they were consistently let down by those in authority – both individuals and institutions…
If the similar cases with missing records are taken into account, the true number of victims may be up to 650. Other figures show that 70% of the victims were not admitted for terminal care, [J4MB emphasis] so their deaths were unexpected, with most living only two days or less after being administered the drug. Nurses’ concerns were repeatedly ignored.
The panel found that the hospital management, local healthcare organisations, Hampshire Constabulary, the Crown Prosecution Service, the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and local politicians had all failed to act to protect patients and their families. According to Prof Sir Brian Jarman, an expert on hospital mortality at the Dr Foster Unit at Imperial College London, the Gosport accident may be repeated because of NHS continued blame culture in pressuring or even firing whistleblowers.”
No mention is made in the Wikipedia page of Dr Jane Barton. I turn to a BBC piece from October 2024, Police identify 24 suspects over hospital drug deaths. The start of the piece:
“Detectives investigating hundreds of deaths at a hospital have identified 24 suspects.
An independent panel previously found 456 patients died after being given opiates inappropriately [J4MB: this links to a BBC piece which opens momentarily, then vanishes] at Gosport War Memorial Hospital between 1987 and 2001.
Families of those who died have been informed a new criminal investigation, led by Kent Police, has begun sharing files with the Crown Prosecution Service for charging consideration.
Operation Magenta, which follows three previous investigations by Hampshire Constabulary that resulted in no prosecutions, said 21 people were being investigated for alleged gross negligence manslaughter and three for alleged health and safety offences.”
Let us remind ourselves that 24 years have elapsed since the end of the period in which patients died after being given opioid drugs inappropriately. From the same BBC piece:
“A 2018 report into the deaths found there was a ‘disregard for human life’ of a large number of patients from 1989 to 2000.
There was an “institutionalised regime” of prescribing and administering ‘dangerous’ amounts of a medication not clinically justified at the Hampshire hospital, the report added.
Dr Jane Barton oversaw the practice of prescribing on the wards and is the only person to face disciplinary action.
She was found guilty of failings in her care of 12 patients between 1996 and 1999.
But she was not struck off the medical register, choosing to retire after the findings were published.
In a statement in 2018, Dr Barton said she was a “hard-working doctor” who was “doing her best” for patients in a “very inadequately resourced” part of the NHS.” [J4MB emphasis.]
Onto a 2018 BBC piece, Gosport hospital deaths: Who is Dr Jane Barton? Extracts:
“Doctors are meant to preserve life and cause no harm. The Hippocratic Oath, written 2,500 years ago, includes the line: ‘I will use treatments for the benefit of the ill in accordance with my ability and my judgment, but from what is to their harm and injustice I will keep them.’ A review published on Wednesday found more than 450 patients died sooner than they would have after being given powerful painkillers inappropriately at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.
Who is the doctor who actively shortened her patients’ lives?
Dr Jane Ann Barton, now aged 70, graduated from Oxford University in 1972 as a Bachelor of Medicine…
While at the hospital she was responsible for the care of people inhabiting 44 beds.
During her 12 years at the hospital, Dr Barton signed 854 death certificates. Of the patients she treated, 94% had received opiates, with ‘little evidence of the three analgesia steps recommended in palliative care: non-opiate, then weak opiate, then strong opiate’, an earlier review in 2003 found…
In some cases the aim of transfer to Gosport was for long-term care, as in patients with terminal cancer.
Others, however, were there for rehabilitation following a stroke or fractured hip.
When people die from a fracture, the cause of death should be recorded as “accidental” and accidental death is reported to a coroner.
Dr Barton, however, recorded fracture-related deaths as stemming from bronchopneumonia, meaning the coroner was not informed. Any unusually high post-fracture death rate would therefore have passed unnoticed. [J4MB emphasis. Now, why might Dr Barton have done that?]
Dr Barton stopped working at the hospital in 2000 but continued to practise as a GP…
In one set of notes Dr Barton wrote: ‘[The patient] is frightened, agitated appears in pain. Suggest transdermal analgesia despite no obvious clinical justification!! Dr Lord to countersign. I am happy for nursing staff to confirm death…’ [J4MB emphasis]
A 2010 General Medical Council investigation found Dr Barton guilty of serious professional misconduct, and of putting her patients at risk of an early death – but the panel did not remove her right to practice medicine, saying it had ‘taken into account her 10 years of safe practice as a GP‘ [J4MB: A reminder that Dr Barton graduated in 1972, 38 years before.] and 200 letters of support.
Instead, 11 conditions were placed upon Dr Barton, including a three-year ban on injecting opiates.”
Onto another BBC piece, from 2019, Gosport hospital deaths: Evidence ‘strong enough to bring charges’. Extracts:
“During the investigations, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) looked at possible charges of manslaughter and murder in relation to Dr Barton and some nurses [J4MB emphasis] who administered the drugs.
However, prosecutors decided there was not a reasonable chance of securing convictions. [J4MB emphasis. This is absolute nonsense. This simply reflects the unwillingness of the CPS to hold women – in general, and Dr Jane Barton in particular, here – accountable.]
One auxiliary nurse said: ‘It got to the stage that every time Dr Barton came to the annexe, I would think to myself who’s going to die now?’
In another statement, a staff nurse said: ‘It seemed that most patients were going on drivers even when they were not in pain.’
Another nurse said they believed the drug was used ‘to keep the waiting lists down’.”
[End of extracts.]
Long story short? Up to 650 patients – 70% of whom were not admitted for terminal care – died as a result of inappropriate use of opioid drugs at one hospital over the course of 1987-2001. All (or almost all) of the 24 people suspected of being responsible for the deaths are women. I say ‘almost all’ because maybe some of the nurses are men. Collectively they shortened the lives of far more people than Harold Shipman (estimated 250 people).
If those suspected of being responsible had been men, the investigations and trials would surely have concluded many years ago. There would also have been a huge amount of mainstream media coverage until the conclusion of the matter, as opposed to the minimal coverage of the Gosport hospital story. The latest mainstream media piece I have found is on ITVX, Gosport War Memorial Hospital: Families’ frustration in latest meeting as they search for answers.
Dr Jane Barton is now 77. Will she ever be prosecuted in relation to the 650 deaths in the 1990s – when she was in her 40s – and if found guilty, incarcerated for the rest of her days? No, of course she won’t. The authorities are biding their time until she dies, never having been held to account.
Dr Jane Barton has been a case study in female unaccountability for 35+ years.
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