30.04.19
Police launch fresh criminal inquiry into Gosport hospital scandal
Police have launched a new full criminal investigation into the deaths of hundreds of patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.
A public inquiry in June last year into over 800 deaths at the Gosport hospital found that more than 450 patients died after being given “dangerous” levels of drugs, and said the families had been been failed by the “nationalised practice of shortening lives.”
Assistant police constable Nick Downing, head of serious crime at Kent and Essex Police, told families today that sufficient new evidence had been unearthed to investigate the deaths which took place between 1989 and 2000.
In September Downing began assessing what sufficient evidence was available to support any further legal action and now the relatives have been told a “full investigation” is to begin.
He said: “The families of those affected by the events at Gosport War Memorial Hospital are at the heart of everything we do, and I hope the news that we will now be carrying out a full investigation is of some comfort to them.
“This investigation is not about numbers; it is about people – specifically those who died at the hospital and the loved ones they have left behind.”
This is the fourth such investigation into the deaths, and Downing said it was important that the police carry out an initial assessment of the materials obtained by the Gosport Independent Panel to establish if it contained sufficient new evidence.
He stated: “Now that we have launched a full investigation we will be arranging to meet with the families on a one-to-one basis and invite them to give statements on their own experiences with the hospital, as it is their accounts about the loss of their loved ones that will help put the medical assessments we have into context.”
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