Safeguards 'failed Shipman patients'

The High Court judge heading the inquiry into Harold Shipman's crimes said today that the systems which should have safeguarded his patients had failed.

"It is deeply disturbing that Shipman's killing of his patients did not arouse suspicion for so many years," said Dame Janet Smith in her interim report.

"The systems which should have safeguarded his patients against his misconduct, or at least detected misconduct when it occurred, failed to operate satisfactorily."

Dame Janet said in the report that the esteem in which Shipman was held ensured that very few relatives felt "any real sense of disquiet" about the circumstances of the victims' deaths.

"Those who did harbour private suspicions felt unable to report their concerns," she said.

She said that phase two of her report would consider how to ensure that unexpected or unexplained deaths were reported and that their causes were properly investigated.

"By the end of the inquiry, I hope to be able to make recommendations which will seek not only to ensure that a doctor like Shipman would never again be able to evade detection for so long, but also to provide systems which the public will understand and in which they will have well-founded confidence," she said.

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