Major police update on corporate manslaughter investigation at Blackpool Victoria Hospital stroke unit

Police investigation into the treatment of patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital's stroke unit almost a decade ago is still ongoing.

An update has been provided on a corporate investigation by Lancashire Police which has been running since 2023.

It was confirmed at a pre-inquest review held at Blackpool Town Hall that a team of more than 20 officers is continuing to look into potential corporate failings contributing to the death, ill-treatment or neglect of 10 patients who died in 2017 or 2018.

Offences under consideration include corporate and gross negligence manslaughter, corporate ill-treatment and wilful neglect.

The review hearing concerned the deaths of Doreen Connor, 85, Margaret Hamilton, 86, Geoffrey Duckworth, 86, Norman Littlewood, 72, Ronald Humphreys, 90, David Philpott, 84, Jospeh McCabe, 79, and Joan Walker, who all died in November or December 2018 and Peter Whittaker, 81, who died in December 2017.

Ch Insp Mark Dickinson, who is leading the police investigation, said in the case of four of those patients - Geoffrey Duckworth, Peter Whittaker, Joan Walker and Margaret Hamilton - officers are looking into a direct causal link between the care and treatment they received and their deaths.

In the cases of the others, ill-treatment and neglect is being investigated.

A further pre-inquest review into the cases is to be held in February, when Blackpool and Fylde senior coroner will hear a further update of the status of the investigation. An inquest cannot be held until any police investigation into the deaths has been concluded.

Mr Wilson said he is keen for the inquest to be held as soon as possible, as with eight years and more having already elapsed since the deaths, he is concerned about witnesses’ recollection of events of the time.

He indicated that when the inquest takes place, it is likely to last several weeks, with evidence covering the joint situation regarding the nine patients concerned in the early stages, followed by a focus on each of them individually.

The current police investigation was launched in October 2023 after the prosecution of five health care workers for a number of drug offences, with two of them jailed for sedating or conspiring to sedate patients to keep them quiet.

Nurse Catherine Hudson, 54, was jailed for seven years and two months and healthcare worker Charlotte Wilmot, 48, sentenced to three years in prison.

Between September and October 2018 alone, the court was told, more than 1,100 Zopiclone tablets were dispensed, despite only 207 having been recorded as prescribed. The prosecution described the situation around the hospital's pharmacy as a "free for all".

None of the patients relating to the convictions in 2023 died but the police investigation, known as Operation Bermuda, made a number of unexpected discoveries, including the violent death of Valerie Kneale in November 2018.

An inquest into the death of Mrs Kneale, 75, held last year, concluded that she was unlawfully killed, having bled to death days after a sexual assault in the hospital in 2018. A separate six-year murder investigation, Operation Jordan was unable to find the killer.

The investigation into corporate failings is not linked to her death.