AN INQUIRY into the deaths of more than 90 patients at a Hampshire hospital is likely to end up costing £13m.

A freedom of information request to the Department of Health has revealed that an extra £5m has been allocated to the The Gosport Independent Panel, set up in 2014 to address historic concerns raised by the relatives of patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.

Panel chairman Bishop James Jones said: “We are over half way through the work of the panel and are now in contact with more families with concerns about the historic care and treatment of their loved ones.

“It is vitally important that all families who have come forward are treated equally and their concerns are properly examined by the panel before we report.”

The Department of Health commissioned the Baker Report, released in 2013, which investigated the deaths at the hospital between 1988 and 2000 and found that the routine use of opiates painkillers had ‘almost certainly’ shortened the lives of some patients.

Some relatives say an independent inquiry should have been set up much earlier.

Bridget-Mary Jones, whose grandmother Elise Devane died at the hospital, said: “The frustration is that when we started we wanted a public inquiry but we were told very clearly that the cost would be far too great.”

The panel’s inquiry was expected to end in December but was extended until spring 2018 due to an increase the number of families coming forward.