BMJ 2003;326:274-276 ( 1 February )

Education and debate

Monitoring mortality rates in general practice after Shipman

Letters p 280

Richard Baker, professor ^a, David R Jones, professor of medical statistics ^b, Peter Goldblatt, chief medical statistician ^c. 

^a Clinical Governance and Research Development Unit, Department of General Practice and Primary Care, University of Leicester, Leicester General Hospital, Leicester LE5 4PW, ^b Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Leicester, ^c Office for National Statistics, London SW1V 2QQ

Correspondence to: R Baker rb14@le.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Harold Shipman's murderous career led to demands that steps be taken to prevent any recurrence, but devising an acceptable and workable method of monitoring mortality rates in individual general practices is not a simple matter

Soon after the publication of the review of Harold Shipman's clinical practice,¹ one of us (RB) went to a meeting for families of possible victims of Shipman. Each of the 100 people present was facing the possibility that at least one member of their family had been murdered by their general practitioner. They wanted the review explained, and to ask questions about how the health service had failed to detect Shipman's murders. One person asked, "How will I be able to trust a doctor again?" Whatever the answer given at the time, the only adequate response must be a collective one from the medical profession and its regulators together. One such response, recommended in the review . . . [Full text of this article]

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