Eastbourne MP writes to Prime Minister over hospital deaths

Stephen Lloyd has written to Prime Minister Theresa May calling on her to step up the pressure for a police force to be appointed after a public inquiry into deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital found there was a “disregard for human life” of a large number of patients from 1989 to 2000.

The report said Dr Jane Barton oversaw the practice of prescribing on the wards.

Mr Lloyd, whose constituent Gillian McKenzie lost her mother Gladys Richards suddenly in 1998 after she was transferred to the hospital following a hip operation, said, “Let me be clear here; more than 450 people on one ward in the Gosport War Memorial Hospital were unlawfully killed. The relatives got the truth, at last, from the report. They now demand, and deserve, justice.”

Mrs McKenzie first raised her suspicions into the deaths at Gosport 10 years ago and Mr Lloyd has been campaigning on her behalf since.

He said, “A decade later, the truth has come out and I pay tribute to Bishop Jones and his committee. However, it must not end here. The relatives deserve their day in court.

“I would therefore urge the government set up a process for a major criminal enquiry into the whole dreadful affair.”