Report finds 450 lives shortened by UK hospital

A British panel has found at least 450 had their lives shortened by a hospital's institutionalised regime of administering opioids without medical justification.

The report released on Wednesday found an "institutionalised" practice of prescribing and administering opioids without medical reason between 1989 and 2000 at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital in southern England.

The panel concluded another 200 patients were "probably" similarly affected, but records were missing and clinical notes were not found.

The Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, who led the independent inquiry, says "there was an institutionalised practice of the shortening of lives through prescribing and administering opioids without medical justification."

He says the system failed the affected families.

"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," Jones said in the report.

"They show too that, whereas a large number of patients and their relatives understood that their admission to the hospital was for either rehabilitation or respite care, they were, in effect, put on a terminal care pathway."

Jones, who led the independent inquiry, said the system failed the affected families and blamed them for failings at the hospital.

Many of those campaigners are now demanding that criminal charges be brought.

"This report is a vindication of their tenacious refusal to be dismissed," Jones said in the report. "It shows how they were failed by the professional bodies and by others in authority charged with responsibility for regulating the practice of professionals in the interests of patient safety."

British Prime Minister Theresa May described events at the hospital as "deeply troubling".

She also apologised to families over the time it took to get answers from the National Health Service.