GMC admits failings that left Shipman's patients unprotected
BMJ 2003; 327 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7426.1248 (Published 27 November 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;327:1248- Clare Dyer, Legal correspondent
- BMJ
The General Medical Council admitted last week a range of past failings but insisted that improvements to its procedures, along with revalidation and local clinical governance, should help ensure that unfit doctors are detected in future.
The GMC's counsel, Roger Henderson, told the inquiry of the circumstances in which the GP Harold Shipman managed to murder dozens of patients undetected: “As a registered medical practitioner, Shipman betrayed his patients and his profession in a way that was not reasonably foreseeable.
“Until he was found to have perpetrated his murders, systems were not designed to take the possibility of such extreme wickedness into account. We were …
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