Shipman 'killed up to 15 patients 30 years ago' - report
Serial murderer Harold Shipman killed up to 15 patients while he trained as a hospital doctor more than 30 years ago at Pontefract General Infirmary in West Yorkshire, an official report said today.
The sixth report of the Shipman Inquiry was carried out to decide how many deaths at Pontefract General Infirmary were unlawful killings.
Shipman: The Final Report is being delivered at Manchester Town Hall.
Harold Shipman was convicted of drug offences in 1976 after becoming addicted to pethidine as a young doctor, but he was allowed to carry on practising by the General Medical Council (GMC).
He was jailed for life in January 2000 after being convicted at Preston Crown Court of 15 murders.
The 57-year-old was found hanged in his cell in Wakefield Prison in January last year.
The Shipman Inquiry was ordered by the British government in February 2000. It has already found that Shipman murdered at least 215 patients with lethal morphine injections in a 23-year killing spree while working at a one-man GP practice in Hyde.
During the inquiry, questions were raised about a further 137 deaths at Pontefract General Hospital between 1970 and 1974, when Shipman worked there as a junior doctor.
In April last year the inquiry announced it would rule on the deaths.
It also said it would investigate a further three cases in Hyde, as well as an alleged confession by Shipman while he was in prison in Preston.
A Shipman Inquiry spokesman said: “Following Shipman’s suicide in January 2004, a health professional who worked at Pontefract General Infirmary during the time that Shipman was employed there came forward to express concerns.
“In view of the nature of these concerns, the inquiry has felt it necessary to look again into Shipman’s time as a hospital doctor in Pontefract.”
He added: “The sixth report of the inquiry contains the decisions of the inquiry chairman, Dame Janet Smith, into 137 deaths that occurred between 1970 and 1974, when Shipman worked at Pontefract General Infirmary."
The inquiry has taken 2,500 witness statements and more than 100,000 pages of evidence has been scanned into its database.
The first report, Death Disguised, was published on July 19, 2002 and considered how many patients Shipman killed, the means employed and the period over which the killings took place.
The second report examined the police investigation of March 1998, while the third report covered death certification and the investigation of deaths by coroners. The fourth looked at the regulation of controlled drugs.
The fifth report, published last month, said the GMC, the watchdog in charge of regulating GPs, should be stripped of its right to judge misconduct cases.
Dame Janet said that in the past the GMC had failed to protect patients and “acted in the interests of doctors” during fitness to practice hearings.
Today’s report is the final one to be published by the Shipman Inquiry.
Four doctors who signed cremation forms for Shipman’s patients are currently facing GMC disciplinary proceedings for serious professional misconduct.