In August 1998, following the death of Gladys Richards who had gone into Gosport War Memorial Hospital for rehab following a hip operation, her family reported concerns about her treatment to the police and to the coroner.
[2] As a result, the then health minister Norman Lamb set up the Gosport Independent Panel led by Bishop James Jones in July 2014.
[1] On 20 June 2018, after an enquiry, which took four years and cost £14 million,[3] the Gosport Independent Panel published a report which found that 456 deaths in the 1990s had "followed inappropriate administration of opioid drugs".
[5] 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.
[12] Assistant Chief Constable Nick Downing, head of the Serious Crime Directorate for Kent and Essex Police, announced on 30 April 2019 that a new criminal investigation into the deaths was to take place.