Revealed: NHS kept using Graseby ‘danger syringes’ to save cash

The syringe pumps were used in the NHS for more than 30 years
The syringe pumps were used in the NHS for more than 30 years

In an attempt to cut costs the NHS knowingly put thousands of patients’ lives at risk for at least eight years by using syringe pumps that failed to meet internationally recognised minimum safety standards.

A Sunday Times investigation has identified up to nine patient deaths that occurred because Britain carried on using the equipment despite its potential dangers after other countries had chosen to stop using them.

Experts believe the true number of fatalities linked to the pumps may be many times higher and has gone unrecorded because of an institutional indifference to elderly patients in their final days. A Department of Health whistleblower claims thousands of elderly patients may have died prematurely as a result.

Leaked documents reveal that investigators working for an official