I have been waiting and waiting for someone else to say this.
Responses to Shipman have varied from denial on the one hand to the
grandiose and unrealistic on the other.
There are those who have argued in your columns and elsewhere that Harold
Shipman was a psychopath who only happened to be a doctor, and that it is
no more logical to introduce tighter controls on doctors than it would be
to
introduce annual tests for all truck drivers or revalidation for all
builders
because other mass murderers have been truck drivers or builders.
At the other extreme there are those like Janet Smith who would introduce
yet
more cumbersome appraisal, revalidation and regulation for doctors despite
the fact that Harold Shipman would almost certainly have passed all his
revalidation checks. There are also those who have advocated that every
death in the country should be certified by two independent doctors.
What we seem to be overlooking is that Harold Shipman had a history. In
1975 he was found guilty of forging prescriptions for Pethidine which he
was
using himself. If we accept that addictive behaviour must always have a
risk
of relapse, it would seem to me to be a sensible precaution that all
doctors
who are found guilty of a crime involving the use of controlled drugs,
should
have their prescribing and purchasing of controlled drugs monitored for
life.
This would be a much more manageable task than introducing a whole new
structure for checking every doctor in the land, or duplicating every
death
certificate. We already have mechanisms for monitoring drug prescribing
through the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA), and the drug squad of
local
police forces have the authority to check the Drugs register of any GP.
The
GMC has knowledge of doctors up to date addresses and of criminal charges
brought against doctors. It should be quite straight forward for the GMC
to
initiate a life-time monitoring instruction. It simply remains to decide
whether it is the PCT, the Health Authority , or some other body that
manages
it.
Yours,
Charles West
General Practitioner,
Church Stretton,
Shropshire.
Rapid Response:
Shipman - Let's get realistic
Editor,
I have been waiting and waiting for someone else to say this.
Responses to Shipman have varied from denial on the one hand to the
grandiose and unrealistic on the other.
There are those who have argued in your columns and elsewhere that Harold
Shipman was a psychopath who only happened to be a doctor, and that it is
no more logical to introduce tighter controls on doctors than it would be
to
introduce annual tests for all truck drivers or revalidation for all
builders
because other mass murderers have been truck drivers or builders.
At the other extreme there are those like Janet Smith who would introduce
yet
more cumbersome appraisal, revalidation and regulation for doctors despite
the fact that Harold Shipman would almost certainly have passed all his
revalidation checks. There are also those who have advocated that every
death in the country should be certified by two independent doctors.
What we seem to be overlooking is that Harold Shipman had a history. In
1975 he was found guilty of forging prescriptions for Pethidine which he
was
using himself. If we accept that addictive behaviour must always have a
risk
of relapse, it would seem to me to be a sensible precaution that all
doctors
who are found guilty of a crime involving the use of controlled drugs,
should
have their prescribing and purchasing of controlled drugs monitored for
life.
This would be a much more manageable task than introducing a whole new
structure for checking every doctor in the land, or duplicating every
death
certificate. We already have mechanisms for monitoring drug prescribing
through the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA), and the drug squad of
local
police forces have the authority to check the Drugs register of any GP.
The
GMC has knowledge of doctors up to date addresses and of criminal charges
brought against doctors. It should be quite straight forward for the GMC
to
initiate a life-time monitoring instruction. It simply remains to decide
whether it is the PCT, the Health Authority , or some other body that
manages
it.
Yours,
Charles West
General Practitioner,
Church Stretton,
Shropshire.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests