BMJ 2003;326:280 ( 1 February )

Letters

Shipman proposals will alter general practice profoundly

See also p 274

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

EDITOR---The proposals for developing a new system for death certification in the discussion paper that has arisen from the Shipman inquiry, will require any death that was not expected in advance to be reported to the medical coroner immediately.1 In our experience of auditing deaths in a small group over 11 years, at least 75% of deaths should then be reported.2 If most deaths are going to be handled by the medical coroner, why not all? This would dispel increased suspicion that deaths may have been unlawful or due to medical error.

We estimated that some action by general practitioners may have contributed to 5% of deaths. We did not, however, find any cases where errors caused the death, a crucial distinction that the inquiry seems to have overlooked.

General practitioners are faced each day with the possibility that a patient they are treating will die unexpectedly in . . . [Full text of this article]
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