THOSE responsible for the early deaths of hundreds of NHS patients wrongly dosed with opioids should face criminal charges, relatives demanded today.

More than 450 people had their lives shortened as a result of an “institutionalised regime” of prescribing and administering opioids without medical justification at Gosport War Memorial Hospital between 1989 and 2000, a damning inquiry report has found.

Another 200 patients, whose medical records have gone missing, were also “probably” affected by the use of “dangerous doses” of opioids.