UK forms new agency to prevent new 'Dr Death'

UK forms new agency to prevent new 'Dr Death'

LONDON (Reuters): Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Sunday a new government agency was being created to ensure no one like serial killer Dr Harold Shipman -- who may have murdered up to 300 of his patients -- could ever work in Britain's health service again.

Blair said the agency, the National Clinical Assessment Authority, was designed to intervene very rapidly when suspicions emerge about a family doctor or practice.

The move follows public concern over Manchester family doctor Shipman, who may have killed up to 297 patients over more than 20 years, according to a government report released on Friday.

Shipman, dubbed "Dr Death" by the media, was jailed for life last year after being convicted of killing 15 elderly patients.

If the estimates of additional murders are correct, they would rank Shipman among the worst mass killers of recent history.

"The importance of the new Clinical Assessment Authority is that it is going to allow us to take action very quickly where a hospital or GP practice knows that something is wrong..." Blair told the BBC's Breakfast With Frost program.

Calling the Shipman case wholly exceptional, he added: "The new authority will allow us to act very very quickly...and along with the annual appraisal system should give us the best possible chance of this never happening again."

His health minister, John Hutton, told Sky TV the new agency would allow the government to reassure people there was an effective system to detect rogue family doctors.

"Shipman was a mass murderer and what we need to make sure right across the board is that we have a better set of systems in place to detect concerns about death rates for example, people dying in GP's premises, so that we can deal with those problems when they come up."

Media reports said the agency, replacing the General Medical Council as the main guardian of patient safety, would be formally launched on Monday. But the GMC will still retain the formal right to strike off doctors.

The new authority will investigate any doctors whose annual appraisal exposes serious weaknesses. It will also carry out checks on those judged deficient during hospital clinical audits.

A new national database will be set up to monitor death rates and incidents where treatment goes badly wrong. Complaints by patients will also be investigated by the new authority.