前卫生部长声称，官员试图回避某康老院历年800人死亡事件调查 [美国媒体]

A former health minister has claimed government officials tried to dodge a public inquiry into the suspicious deaths of more than 800 patients at a single hospital in England.
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb said he suspected a “conspiracy” among officials, when in his absence ，they tried to reject an inquiry into hundreds of deaths allegedly linked to Dr Jane Barton.
He claims to have intervened at the last moment, allowing the subsequent launch of the probe into circumstances around the deaths of mainly elderly patients, many of whom were prescribed high doses of morphine.

一位前卫生部长声称政府官员试图躲避对英国一所医院800多名病人可疑死亡的公开调查。
前卫生部长，民主党议员Norman Lamb说，他怀疑官员之间存在“阴谋”，当他缺席的时候，官员意图拒对涉嫌Jane Barton医生关联的数百死亡名单进行调查。
他声称已经在最后一刻介入，并随后展开调查，调查主要是老年患者死亡的情况，其中许多人被开了大剂量吗啡。

The revelation comes as the inquiry, which also focusses on the death certificates signed by Dr Barton, is due to set out its findings on Wednesday.
A long list of investigations that predated the ￡13m inquiry, carried out by police, prosecutors, the NHS and the General Medical Council, failed to satisfy families, some of whom claim the circumstances around the deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital were covered up.
Mr Lamb, who campaigned for a public inquiry into the issue before becoming a minister, explained how, once in office, he had pushed government civil servants to show him the findings of a report by Professor Richard Baker into patient care.
He told BBC Newsnight: “I started to ask questions internally. I asked to see the Professor Baker report and, for two to three months, it wasn’t forthcoming.

将被曝光的调查集中在Barton医生签署的死亡证明书上，将于星期三公布调查结果。
由警方、检察官、国民保健服务部和一般医疗委员会执行的1300万份调查中的一串调查并未能满足死者家属，其中一些人声称围绕戈斯波特战争纪念医院死亡的实况被掩盖。
在成为一名部长之前曾进行过公众调查，lamb说，一旦执政，他就推动政府公务员给他公示Richard Baker教授的一份报告，将其纳入病人护理。他告诉英国广播公司新闻夜：“我开始问责内部问题。我要求看Baker教授的报告，需要两到三个月，要再等一段时间。

“We then went away on holiday in the summer of 2013. Late at night one evening, I just happened to switch on my iPad and I saw an email from my private secretary, which said they were going to publish the Baker report the next day, and that they would announce there would be no public inquiry.
“I was incandescent about this. I immediately sensed that there might have been a conspiracy to cover this up whilst I was out of the country – to this day I don’t know whether it was cockup or coverup.”
He emailed back saying that the announcement was not to go out, and when he returned he met officials and made it clear that there had to be an inquiry.

“我们在2013夏天去度假了。一天晚上深夜，我恰巧打开了我的iPad，我看到了我的私人秘书的电子邮件，他们说他们将在第二天公布Baker报告，他们将宣布不会进行公开调查。
“我当时很激动。我立刻意识到，在我离开这个国家的时候，可能会有一个阴谋来掩盖这一点——直到今天我还不知道这是一个伪装还是掩盖。
他回邮，声明并不准备公开。当他回来时，他会见了官员，并明确表示必须进行调查。

The MP said that officials had sought the permission of another minister, who was less familiar with the case, to put out the announcement in his absence.
He accepted that the civil servants may have innocently forgotten he had repeatedly requested to see the Baker report, but added: “It was either grossly negligent to just proceed in that way, or there was something worse involved.”
He told of his horror at eventually reading in the Baker report how people who had gone into the hospital for rehabilitation had ended up dead after being proscribed morphine.

国会议员说，官员们已经寻求另一位部长的许可，Lamb不太熟悉这个案子，所以在他缺席的时候宣布了这一消息。
公务员们可能已经天真地忘记了他曾多次要求看Baker的报告，但他补充说：“要么只是粗心大意，要么就是牵涉到更糟糕的事情。”他讲述了他最后一次在Baker报告中所看到的恐惧，那些进入养老院的人在被停止吗啡后最终死亡。

Mr Lamb pointed out that the facts around the case had been available to officials for some time and that he could not understand why they had never been put to an inquiry.
He argued that there had been a “systemic failure” in the health service, adding: “If you imagine what it must have been like for those families who lost loved ones in this hospital, just being left completely in the dark, a sense of a closing of ranks, an unwillingness by the NHS to face up to some really serious allegations to what happened in that hospital.
“So this report is in my view very long overdue.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Norman Lamb, in his capacity as a minister at the Department of Health at the time, was instrumental in the decision to set up a panel investigation into the tragic events at Gosport.

Lamb先生指出，有关案件的事实已经为官员呈现了一段时间，他不明白为什么他们从未被调查过。他认为在医疗服务中出现了“系统性的失败”，并补充说：如果你想象那些在医院失去亲人的家庭应该是什么样的，只是被完全留在黑暗中，一种被蒙蔽的感觉，NHS不愿面对那所医院发生的一些严重的指控。“因此，我认为这份报告已经过期很久了。”
卫生和社会保健部发言人说：“Norman Lamb当时担任卫生部部长，对决定对Gosport发生的悲惨事件进行小组调查起到了决定性作用。

The government, along with local NHS organisations and authorities, will receive a copy of the report and we expect the findings to be studied closely and carefully by all relevant parties.”
Police launched an investigation into 92 of the deaths in 2002 but after a protracted inquiry, the Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2006 that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.
It had been claimed in allegations stretching back 30 years, that patients at the hospital were almost routinely given strong painkillers in high doses, which may have led to their deaths.

政府，连同当地的NHS组织和当局，将在星期三收到一份报告的副本，我们期望所有相关方密切仔细地研究这些发现。
警方于2002展开调查，其中92人死亡，但经过长时间的调查后，皇冠检控局于2006年宣布没有足够的证据起诉。
据称，在30年前，医院里的病人几乎都是常规服用高剂量止痛药，这可能导致他们死亡。

Inquests in 2009 and 2013 into 11 of the deaths ruled medication prescribed by Dr Barton had contributed to six patients dying.
Dr Barton was found guilty of “multiple instances of serious professional misconduct” by the General Medical Council in 2010 but was not struck off and soon retired.
She told the GMC at the time that she had faced an “excessive and increasing burden” looking after patients and faced “unreasonable” pressure in her job.

在2009和2013的调查中，负责11名死者药物治疗的Barton医生（女）开出的药物导致六名患者死亡。Barton医生于2010被发现犯了“严重的渎职行为”，但没有被撤职，并很快就退休了。
她告诉GMC当时她面临着“负担过重和负担过重”，照顾病人，面对工作中的“不合理”压力。

There is no suggestion Dr Barton has committed a criminal offence. She is among several medical staff questioned over the years about the persistent allegations by relatives.
The 2013 report by Prof Baker found opiate painkillers prescribed at the hospital since 1988 had “almost certainly shortened the lives of some patients”.
“It cannot be ruled out that a small number of would otherwise have been eventually discharged from hospital alive,” his report said.

没有证据表明Barton博士犯了刑事罪。多年来，他接受几名医生对亲属们持续指控的询问。贝克教授的2013份报告发现，自从1988以来，医院规定的opiate止痛药“几乎肯定缩短了一些病人的生命”。“不能排除少数病人会最终从医院出院，”他的报告说。

Families have suggested their elderly relatives were given excessive doses of the drugs to “keep them quiet” on overstretched wards and raised fears they may have been deliberately euthanised.
The inquiry reporting on Wednesday is headed by former Bishop of Liverpool James Jones, who led the Hillsborough inquiry, and is expected to find that the number of people who died under suspicious circumstances exceeds the 92 cases already looked into by police.
Theresa May is expected to refer to the finding during Prime Minister’s Questions later the same day, with health secretary Jeremy Hunt also expected to give a statement.

家属们说他们的老年亲属服用过量的药物，使他们在过度扩张的病房区中保持安静，并担心他们可能被故意安乐死。
星期三的调查报告由利物浦前主教杰姆斯琼斯领导，他领导了希尔斯堡调查案，预计会发现在可疑情况下死亡的人数超过警方已经调查的92起案件。Theresa May预计将在当天晚些时候在首相的提问中提及这一发现，卫生部长Jeremy Hunt也将发表声明。