More than 270 patients died from the alleged misuse of sedatives at a Madrid hospital over a two-year period, it emerged today, prompting calls for a judicial inquiry.

The patients died after being admitted to the accident and emergencies department of the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganes, a Madrid suburb. Most died within 24 hours of being admitted to the A&E department after being treated with the sedatives morphine, midazolam and tranxilium.

Doctor Luis Montes, 56, has been suspended ahead of the department, whose death rate was three times gigher than in similar clinics in Madrid, according to the daily El Mundo newspaper.

The hospital’s own investigations found that in at least 42 cases, the amount of sedative administered was either "not indicated, was excessive or doubtful," according to El Mundo. Two senior medical officers have also been suspended.

Despite the public disquiet over events at the hospital, colleagues of Dr Montes have called for his re-instatement. Dr Montes, who was known by hospital staff as "Shining Path" after the Peruvian Maoist guerrilla movement, has denied that he acted improperly.

The hospital had drawn up its own protocol in the case of terminally ill patients, which said that sedatives could be administered if sufferers were expected to live for only six more months or less.

But last week the daughter of a man who went in for a routine examination for a respiratory difficulty and died after being sedated began legal proceedings, according to El Mundo, which has called for a judicial inquiry into the affair.

"What’s in question is the defence of the patient’s rights and in the ultimate instance, human life itself," the newspaper said in an editorial. "No doctor can take upon himself the right to decide between life and death and even less without the consent of the family of the patient."

There have been no fatalities from misues of sedatives since the suspension of Dr Montes, the newspaper said.

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