LONDON (AP) — A British panel has found at least 450 had their lives shortened by a hospital's institutionalized regime of administering opioids without medical justification.

The report released Wednesday found an "institutionalized" practice of prescribing and administering opioids without medical reason between 1989 and 2000 at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital in southern England.

The panel concluded another 200 patients were "probably" similarly affected, but records were missing and clinical notes were not found.

The Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, who led the independent inquiry, says "there was an institutionalized practice of the shortening of lives through prescribing and administering opioids without medical justification."

He says the system failed the affected families.