Final Shipman Inquiry Report Finds He Killed Patients as a Junior Doctor, Raising His Toll to About 250
Dame Janet Smith concluded that Shipman killed three men at Pontefract General Infirmary in 1972, decades before his crimes as a family doctor were uncovered.
Published
Harold Shipman's killing began earlier than anyone had known. On January 27, 2005, the public inquiry into his crimes concluded that he had killed three patients as a junior hospital doctor in 1972.
Launching the sixth and final report of the Shipman Inquiry, its chairman, Dame Janet Smith, said Shipman killed three men within six weeks at Pontefract General Infirmary in West Yorkshire: Thomas Cullumbine, 54, who died on April 12, 1972; John Brewster, 84, who died on April 28; and James Rhodes, 71, who died on May 22. "In the case of Thomas Cullumbine it is likely that Shipman used morphine to cause his death, but in the other two cases I do not know what drug he used," she said. Her first report, in 2002, had found that Shipman killed 215 patients as a family doctor and none at Pontefract. The new findings raised the total she attributed to him over his career to about 250.
Alerted by a nurse who had worked at the hospital, Dame Janet examined 137 deaths at Pontefract. She found a strong suspicion over four more, including that of Susie Garfitt, a four-year-old girl who died there in October 1972, and some suspicion over 17 others, but could reach no conclusion in 45 cases. She suggested that in his early years Shipman may have been driven partly by a desire to experiment with drugs. "It was the very fact that Shipman was a doctor that enabled him to kill," she said.
The report also rejected a former Preston prison inmate's claim that Shipman had boasted of taking 508 lives. Dame Janet said the report brought the inquiry's work to an end, and the same day Health Secretary John Reid announced a review of how doctors' fitness to practice is assessed and of the role of the General Medical Council. Shipman, convicted in 2000 of murdering 15 patients, had died in prison a year earlier.
Sources
- Learning from tragedy, keeping patients safe: overview of the Government's action programme in response to the recommendations of the Shipman Inquiry (Cm 7014), Home Office and Department of Health (Command Paper presented to Parliament)
- Shipman killed while training as GP, The Guardian (Debbie Andalo and agencies)
- Shipman killed 250 over three decades, The Guardian (David Ward)
- Shipman 'confession' ruled out, The Guardian (Debbie Andalo)
- The death of a man at Wakefield prison on 13 January 2004, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman
Related News
- July 19, 2002: Shipman Inquiry Finds Family Doctor Harold Shipman Killed 215 of His Patients
- July 14, 2003: Shipman Inquiry Finds a Better 1998 Police Investigation Would Probably Have Saved His Last Three Victims
- January 13, 2004: Harold Shipman Found Dead in His Wakefield Prison Cell the Day Before His 58th Birthday