Doctor facing GMC inquiry over Shipman deaths admits failures
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《英国医生杂志》
A consultant pathologist who concluded that a woman victim of the GP Harold Shipman had died of natural causes admitted a series of failures this week in doing a postmortem examination on her.
Dr David Bee arrives at the GMC hearing to face misconduct charges
Credit: PA
Shipman was jailed for life in 2000 for 15 murders and was found hanged in his prison cell in January 2004. The independent inquiry into his career, which concluded that he murdered at least 215 patients over 23 years, criticised Dr Bee's work as "deeply flawed."
The pathologist, Dr David Bee, aged 71 and now retired, conceded that he had failed to inquire why Shipman had given Renate Overton (who had rung Shipman after an asthma attack) a morphine injection—despite a note in her medical records that the GP had administered at least 20 mg of morphine.
As the BMJ went to press, Dr Bee, of Stockport, Cheshire, was facing seven charges at the General Medical Council over the conduct of his postmortem examination on Mrs Overton, who died of a chest infection aged 47 in 1995. This was 14 months after Shipman's visit, during which she had lost consciousness and fallen into a persistent vegetative state, in which she remained until her death.
The GMC case was expected to finish on 1 October.
The GMC was told that his failure to question why morphine had been administered and his decision to give "natural causes" as the reason for her death was a "very significant failure." The result was that no coroner's inquest was held and the last opportunity to ask why Shipman had given the injection was lost.
Dr Kenneth Scott, a senior pathologist, told the GMC that "alarm bells began to ring" when he saw in Mrs Overton's medical notes that morphine had been administered to a patient with asthma.
"One of the major effects of morphine is to cause respiratory depression. I could not think of anything worse to do to someone who has got asthma than to give them a dose of morphine."
Dr Bee's postmortem report noted that the patient had been in a persistent vegetative state and had a chest infection but did not explain the morphine injection, Dr Scott said. "It is a very significant failure—so significant that it leads to completely the wrong conclusion."
Dr Bee denies serious professional misconduct but admits he failed to inquire why morphine had been administered, failed to discuss the case with the treating physicians, and reached a conclusion for the cause of death that was not properly based on the postmortem findings.(Clare Dyer, legal corresp)
Dr David Bee arrives at the GMC hearing to face misconduct charges
Credit: PA
Shipman was jailed for life in 2000 for 15 murders and was found hanged in his prison cell in January 2004. The independent inquiry into his career, which concluded that he murdered at least 215 patients over 23 years, criticised Dr Bee's work as "deeply flawed."
The pathologist, Dr David Bee, aged 71 and now retired, conceded that he had failed to inquire why Shipman had given Renate Overton (who had rung Shipman after an asthma attack) a morphine injection—despite a note in her medical records that the GP had administered at least 20 mg of morphine.
As the BMJ went to press, Dr Bee, of Stockport, Cheshire, was facing seven charges at the General Medical Council over the conduct of his postmortem examination on Mrs Overton, who died of a chest infection aged 47 in 1995. This was 14 months after Shipman's visit, during which she had lost consciousness and fallen into a persistent vegetative state, in which she remained until her death.
The GMC case was expected to finish on 1 October.
The GMC was told that his failure to question why morphine had been administered and his decision to give "natural causes" as the reason for her death was a "very significant failure." The result was that no coroner's inquest was held and the last opportunity to ask why Shipman had given the injection was lost.
Dr Kenneth Scott, a senior pathologist, told the GMC that "alarm bells began to ring" when he saw in Mrs Overton's medical notes that morphine had been administered to a patient with asthma.
"One of the major effects of morphine is to cause respiratory depression. I could not think of anything worse to do to someone who has got asthma than to give them a dose of morphine."
Dr Bee's postmortem report noted that the patient had been in a persistent vegetative state and had a chest infection but did not explain the morphine injection, Dr Scott said. "It is a very significant failure—so significant that it leads to completely the wrong conclusion."
Dr Bee denies serious professional misconduct but admits he failed to inquire why morphine had been administered, failed to discuss the case with the treating physicians, and reached a conclusion for the cause of death that was not properly based on the postmortem findings.(Clare Dyer, legal corresp)