Thousands of elderly patients may have died prematurely because of cheap, faulty syringe pumps in a scandal described as “one of the biggest cover-ups” in NHS history, The Sunday Times reveals today.

A whistleblower on the government inquiry into hundreds of deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, Hampshire, said decision makers on the panel had “ignored” evidence of fatalities caused by the devices because they feared a national scandal.

The pumps, or drivers, used in the NHS for at least 30 years, led to the rapid infusion of dangerous doses of drugs into the bloodstream and made the behaviour of Dr Jane Barton — in charge of prescribing medicine on the Gosport wards — even more dangerous than had been thought. She was found responsible