GPs appear before GMC accused of missing warning signs in deaths of Sh
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《英国医生杂志》
Four general practitioners appeared before the General Medical Council this week accused of failing to notice warning signs associated with the deaths of patients of the serial killer Harold Shipman.
Alastair MacGillivray, Jeremy Dirckze, Stephen Farrar, and Susan Booth, all of Hyde, Greater Manchester, are accused of neglecting to use proper clinical judgment in confirming the cause of death when signing a total of 214 cremation forms over a period of 18 years. Of these 214 patients 124 were later found to have been unlawfully killed.
The Shipman inquiry led by Janet Smith criticised six Hyde GPs and a pathologist for failing to note contradictions in Dr Shipman抯 accounts of his patients?deaths. The pathologist, David Bee, and two of the GPs, Peter Bennett and Rajesh Patel, were cleared by the GMC last year.
Dr Dirckze, who countersigned 35 cremation forms for Dr Shipman between 1995 and 1998, told the GMC抯 fitness to practise panel that he had trusted Dr Shipman "implicitly."
"He was always regarded as being authoritative and practising excellent medicine," he told the panel. "He gave the impression of being above average, of practising a superior level of medicine to the rest of us."
"Very often we heard stories of what he was doing, things that the rest of us wouldn抰 dream of doing," said Dr Dirckze. "He used to call in on an elderly disabled patient on his way home after work and would wheel him round the block in his wheelchair."
Dr Shipman抯 "more personal approach" made him a favourite of patients, added Dr Dirckze. The serial killer would often go "beyond the call of duty," he said, visiting sick patients two or three times a day.
Only on Dr Shipman抯 arrest in 1998, he said, had it become apparent that he was reporting vastly greater numbers of deaths of patients than other GPs. "At the time, each case in its own right seemed perfectly plausible and reasonable, and I couldn抰 see that anything unusual was developing," said Dr Dirckze. "We didn抰 even dare consider that Shipman was deliberately harming his patients. It wasn抰 something that we thought possible. Mutual trust in your colleague meant that we didn抰 think a doctor could do something like that."
Dr MacGillivray told the hearing that he had believed Dr Shipman抯 frequent home visits to indicate a "high standard of care."
"I thought he was providing care like an old fashioned GP," said Dr MacGillivray. The higher than average number of deaths among Dr Shipman抯 patients had not triggered his suspicions, he said. "I thought the explanation was that he had an elderly population, and he was treating his patients at home, when they wanted to stay at home rather than go into hospital."
Dr Shipman was convicted of 15 counts of murder in 2000 but is believed to have killed about 250 patients with injections of morphine. He was found hanged in his prison cell last year.
The GMC hearing is expected to continue for at least one more week and may be adjourned until late July.(Owen Dyer)
Alastair MacGillivray, Jeremy Dirckze, Stephen Farrar, and Susan Booth, all of Hyde, Greater Manchester, are accused of neglecting to use proper clinical judgment in confirming the cause of death when signing a total of 214 cremation forms over a period of 18 years. Of these 214 patients 124 were later found to have been unlawfully killed.
The Shipman inquiry led by Janet Smith criticised six Hyde GPs and a pathologist for failing to note contradictions in Dr Shipman抯 accounts of his patients?deaths. The pathologist, David Bee, and two of the GPs, Peter Bennett and Rajesh Patel, were cleared by the GMC last year.
Dr Dirckze, who countersigned 35 cremation forms for Dr Shipman between 1995 and 1998, told the GMC抯 fitness to practise panel that he had trusted Dr Shipman "implicitly."
"He was always regarded as being authoritative and practising excellent medicine," he told the panel. "He gave the impression of being above average, of practising a superior level of medicine to the rest of us."
"Very often we heard stories of what he was doing, things that the rest of us wouldn抰 dream of doing," said Dr Dirckze. "He used to call in on an elderly disabled patient on his way home after work and would wheel him round the block in his wheelchair."
Dr Shipman抯 "more personal approach" made him a favourite of patients, added Dr Dirckze. The serial killer would often go "beyond the call of duty," he said, visiting sick patients two or three times a day.
Only on Dr Shipman抯 arrest in 1998, he said, had it become apparent that he was reporting vastly greater numbers of deaths of patients than other GPs. "At the time, each case in its own right seemed perfectly plausible and reasonable, and I couldn抰 see that anything unusual was developing," said Dr Dirckze. "We didn抰 even dare consider that Shipman was deliberately harming his patients. It wasn抰 something that we thought possible. Mutual trust in your colleague meant that we didn抰 think a doctor could do something like that."
Dr MacGillivray told the hearing that he had believed Dr Shipman抯 frequent home visits to indicate a "high standard of care."
"I thought he was providing care like an old fashioned GP," said Dr MacGillivray. The higher than average number of deaths among Dr Shipman抯 patients had not triggered his suspicions, he said. "I thought the explanation was that he had an elderly population, and he was treating his patients at home, when they wanted to stay at home rather than go into hospital."
Dr Shipman was convicted of 15 counts of murder in 2000 but is believed to have killed about 250 patients with injections of morphine. He was found hanged in his prison cell last year.
The GMC hearing is expected to continue for at least one more week and may be adjourned until late July.(Owen Dyer)