Liverpool Care Pathway - The Hollow Man

Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the Shadow.




The Gosport Report was timed to be released to be sandwiched between the weekend news and the publication of the sham Review.

The silence of the Lamb is a deafening one.

Does he really know nothing; is he really just a waste of space...?

The Hollow Man, the Hollow Man,
How could he not know?
The whispers in the Chamber
As the Stuffed Men to and fro...

Back in 26 Apr 2009 - The Independent reported that the Government had rejected repeated calls for a public inquiry into the unexpected deaths of 92 elderly patients at a Hampshire hospital because it was not of 'national importance'...

In an email last November to a relative of one of the dead, the coroner, David Horsely, wrote: "Hampshire Police, Hampshire County Council and I all tried to persuade the Government to hold a public inquiry into the deaths but there was no interest whatsoever. Neither was the Government prepared to assist with any additional funding for the inquests."- The Independent

No additional funding for the inquests.

That is all very telling because it was at this time that the Government EoLC Strategy was unfolding under the all-encompassing umbrella of the NCPC. Umpteen £millions were being pumped into that, but nothing for a few inquests.

WHAT WERE THEY HIDING?

Officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health refused petitions from a coroner and a senior police officer for a public inquiry in August 2007, according to confidential emails seen by The Independent on Sunday.- The Independent

The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw MP was Secretary of State for Justice at the time. Mr. Straw, if I cast my mind way, way, way back to those heady student days in the late 60's, you wrote a fine and much admired piece in Black Dwarf.

That was before the Trots took it over and the paper changed its format, of course.

That was before the Trots took over Industrial Worker modelled after the organ of the US IWW and renamed it Socialist Worker, of course.

That was before a rabid Maoist student climbed scaffolding in Grosvenor Square during an anti-Viet Nam War demo and unfurled the Chinese flag. That was 1969.

It was all push and shove, a lot of it vicious but a lot of it good natured, and I found myself behind police lines. A copper looked at me and quipped you're on the wrong side, son. And I thought, you know what, I bloomin' well am!

That was my personal epiphany.

The Trots worm their way in and take over. That's what they do. When they're not arguing amongst themselves over whose Party is the true vanguard of the Proletariat!

Today we have a medical community of a similar mindset, focussed obsessively on their purpose. Like Red Guards, in blind denial, still clinging to the works of Chairman Ellershaw.

Like the Trots and their 57 varieties of Vanguard party, we have the splinter cells and their 57 varieties of EoL Pathway.

Mr. Straw...

Mr. Straw!

This is murder -

A "remarkably high" proportion of patients were given opiate injections before death, the Baker report states. The "routine" use of these powerful drugs "almost certainly shortened the lives of some patients", some of whom might have survived their illness and been "discharged from hospital alive".- The Independent

How could the Straw Man not finance these inquests and authorise a Public Inquiry?

How could the Hollow Man not know of the financial incentives? Is he unaware they are being paid on Amber to pay the ferryman?

Does the truth whisper loud now within your hollow interior, Mr. Lamb?

This is today's Portsmouth News -

And does this picture speak a thousand words to you, Mr. Lamb, of pain and betrayal, utter betrayal...?

Shame on you all, all you politicians of whatever ilk or colour. Shame on you all!

At last...

At last, an Independent Inquiry but, already, is it come too late to rightly serve justice?

This is The Independent -

An independent inquiry into the deaths of dozens of elderly patients given "life-shortening" powerful painkillers at a Hampshire hospital will be announced by ministers within weeks.

The inquiry will address the findings of a damning audit into deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital published last month, a senior government figure told The Independent on Sunday.

The audit by Professor Richard Baker, a patient safety expert from the University of Leicester who also worked on the Harold Shipman inquiry, found morphine and other powerful sedatives were routinely prescribed to elderly patients in Gosport between 1988 and 2000, even if they were not in pain.

A "remarkably high" proportion of patients were given opiate injections before death, the Baker report states. The "routine" use of these powerful drugs "almost certainly shortened the lives of some patients", some of whom might have survived their illness and been "discharged from hospital alive".

Professor Baker's recommendations included investigations into individual deaths, and a study of shift patterns to ascertain whether deaths were linked to particular nurses and doctors.

Serious concerns about the liberal use of opiates among elderly patients at Gosport were first reported by nurses in 1991, but continued for another decade. Complaints from families in 1998 eventually led to three police investigations, 11 belated inquests and a professional misconduct hearing. 

The Baker report was suppressed by the Department of Health for almost 10 years on the grounds that it could interfere with these proceedings. The report has reignited families' calls for an independent inquiry into the deaths and subsequent "flawed" investigations which were mired by delays. 

The senior source said an inquiry should also examine confidential documents held by the police, Crown Prosecution Service, NHS and government departments, so relatives' outstanding questions and cover-up allegations could be addressed. 

At least two forensic medical experts who investigated the deaths on behalf of Hampshire Police a decade ago have spoken to government officials in recent weeks. 

Norman Lamb, Minister for Care and Support, who in opposition campaigned for a Shipman-style public inquiry into the Gosport deaths in this newspaper, said in a statement yesterday: "I am exploring options for how we can establish all the facts in relation to this scandal. I am deeply concerned by the findings off the Baker report." He added: "I am also conscious that a lot of documents remain unpublished. I want openness so we can establish all of the facts."Hampshire Police were first contacted in August 1998 by Gillian Mackenzie reporting the death of her mother Gladys Richards, 91, who was prescribed morphine despite "no obvious signs of pain". 

Professor Brian Livesley, an expert in elderly care called in by the police, concluded: "As a result of being given these drugs, Mrs Richards was unlawfully killed." Treasury counsel took the view that his assertions were "flawed in respect of his analysis of the law". In August 2001 the CPS said there was insufficient evidence for a successful prosecution. 

The Baker "death audit" was commissioned by the Chief Medical Officer in 2002 as another police investigation – this time into 92 "suspicious" deaths at the hospital – got underway. A team of medical and forensic experts reported "serious concerns" about 15 per cent of the deaths to the police, and expected charges to be brought on the strength of the medical evidence. The CPS closed the case in 2007. 

In 2009 an inquest jury found that painkillers and other sedatives were "inappropriately" prescribed to five patients which contributed to their deaths. In 2010 the General Medical Council found Dr Jane Barton, part-time clinical assistant at Gosport between 1989 and 2000, guilty of "multiple instances of serious professional misconduct". There was widespread anger when she was placed under restrictions rather than struck off. Ms Barton, who insisted she always acted in the best interest of patients, removed herself from the medical register a year later.

When the cloak is lifted,

Will the eyes see;

Will the Shadow

Hide in the night?

In the Heart of Darkness,

Hides the dark truth;

But where there are shadows

There is light...