Latest news with #HaroldShipman
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
I testified at the Harold Shipman Inquiry - these disturbing behaviours foreshadowed Dr Death's killing spree
On the latest episode of the Mail's 'The Psychology of a Serial Kille r', forensic psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Johns and police surgeon Dr. Harry Brunjes interrogate the 'unusual' early life of serial killer Harold Shipman. They also examine how institutions failed to spot Shipman's increasingly erratic and suspicious behaviour, despite the trail of deaths that followed him from practice to practice. The Mail's 'The Psychology of a Serial Killer' is a brand-new true crime podcast that delves into the minds, methods, and motivations of medical murderers. Medical murderers are those who pervert their positions of trust, as doctors or nurses, to prey on the public. The season opens with a study of the infamous cases of doctors Harold Shipman and John Bodkin Adams. Shipman, a GP, is suspected of killing 215-250 patients between the years 1975 and 1998 by injecting them with lethal doses of diamorphine (medical heroin). Dr Andrew Johns, podcast co-host, was called to give expert testimony during the official inquiry into Shipman's murders. Listen to The Psychology of a Serial Killer below or by clicking here. Shipman, a GP, is suspected of killing 215-250 patients between the years 1975 and 1998 by injecting them with lethal doses of diamorphine Adolescence Harold Shipman was born to a working-class family in Nottingham in 1946. He was the son of a lorry driver and the 'apple of his mother's eye', as Dr. Johns told the podcast. At 17, Shipman's mother, Vera, was diagnosed with lung cancer. At the time, there was no treatment for the illness apart from using opiates to manage pain. Dr Johns suspects that exposure to this class of drugs at a young age had a profound effect on the young man. He said: 'The GP would visit Vera at home and give her regular injections of morphine to relieve her pain. 'It's a highly addictive opiate that, in large doses, kills through respiratory depression. It simply stops you from breathing. 'Shipman witnesses the powerful effect of that drug on his mother and how it ultimately eases her passing. What impression did that doctor and needle have on him?' When Vera succumbed to her cancer, it was Shipman who discovered her body coming home from school. To combat his grief, Shipman begins using Sloan's Liniment, a pain killer, recreationally. In high doses, the over-the-counter medication can produce a slight high. On the eve of moving to medical school, Dr John describes Shipman as an 'odd, reclusive chap'. Early Medical Career Shipman studies at Yorkshire's Pontefract General Infirmary and in 1971, is named House Officer of the hospital. Despite being only a Junior Doctor, Shipman certifies 133 deaths during his time at the hospital. As Dr Johns explains: 'As a Junior, Shipman is regarded as overconfident. The official inquiry conjectured that he started misusing the drug Pethidine around this time. 'Pethidine is also an opiate painkiller, but it's synthetic – it's prescribed for moderate to strong pain, unlike morphine, which is used for severe pain. 'At Pontefract, Shipman certifies 133 deaths. There's nothing particularly high about that number until you notice he was present at a third of all deaths. 'Junior Doctors are rarely present at the time of the death. Shipman was present at death 20 times more often than any other Junior Doctor.' After Pontefract, Shipman becomes a qualified GP and moves to Morton, a small town in Leeds, to work in a surgery. At this time, Shipman's judgment and general demeanour become more erratic with his addiction to opiates escalating. 'Shipman is dogmatic about his medical judgement. He's extremely critical of those he deems intellectually inferior', Dr Johns said. 'After several blackouts, including a collapse in front of patients, Shipman is found slumped over the wheel of his car. He claims he's epileptic. 'Following a routine audit, it is discovered that he has forged prescriptions for 30,000 milligrams of Pethidine. That is 600 normal doses.' Shipman admits to using the Pethidine recreationally and is fired and sent to a drug rehabilitation program in York. Despite a Magistrate's Court finding him guilty of forging prescriptions, the General Medical Council let Shipman off with a warning. He would then move to Hyde in Greater Manchester, again working as a GP, where the majority of his murders would take place. For expert analysis of Shipman's murders, search for the Mail's 'The Psychology of a Serial Killer' – available now wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Wednesday.
Telegraph
30-06-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
NHS will use AI to prevent next Letby scandal
The NHS will use artificial intelligence in an attempt to stop or prevent the next Lucy Letby scandal. Pioneering technology will scan health service data in real time and trigger rapid inspections when alarm bells ring over care. The early warning system will detect signs of serious failings including injuries, abuse, avoidable deaths and other incidents that could slip through the net. When concerns are raised, the watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), will deploy specialist inspection teams to investigate. Letby, 35, from Herefordshire, was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016. A number of experts have since questioned the verdict. A Whitehall source said: 'It is an early warning system where there is no room for human error; once the trend is spotted, they will send in human teams to investigate. 'When we look back at cases like Letby, alarm bells should have been ringing about deaths at Countess of Chester long before they were. With other scandals like Shipman, the patterns were there. The question is always how did no one spot it?' Harold Shipman is considered to be one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history, with an estimated 250 victims. Under the scheme, which is being announced as part of a 10-Year Health Plan for the NHS, the UK will be the first country in the world to use machine learning to analyse a mass of healthcare data in an attempt to prevent tragedy. The rollout, which follows a spate of scandals in the health service, will start later this year in maternity wards. Wes Streeting has just announced a national investigation amid growing public concern over avoidable baby deaths. The Health Secretary said: 'While most treatments in the NHS are safe, even a single lapse that puts a patient at risk is one too many. Behind every safety breach is a person – a life altered, a family devastated, sometimes by heartbreaking loss.' Mr Streeting said patient safety and power would be at the heart of the 10-Year Health Plan, which will be launched later this week. He said: 'By embracing AI and introducing world-first early warning systems, we'll spot dangerous signs sooner and launch rapid inspections before harm occurs. 'This technology will save lives – catching unsafe care before it becomes a tragedy. It's a vital part of our commitment to move the NHS from analogue to digital, delivering better, safer care for everyone.' The new maternity outcomes signal system will launch across NHS trusts in November, analysing data almost in real time. It will flag higher-than-expected rates of stillbirth, neonatal death, and brain injury, prompting urgent local investigations. The approach aims to avoid a repeat of tragedies like those seen in Shrewsbury, Telford and East Kent, where failings went unchallenged for years, costing hundreds of avoidable deaths. Officials said the intervention to boost patient safety was on behalf of those who had endured unnecessary suffering at the hands of the NHS. However, the use of big data could trigger concerns from privacy campaigners who have objected to the role of Palantir, a US surveillance company, which will support the programme. The tech giant was founded by Peter Thiel, a US Republican party donor, and is best known for its work with intelligence and military agencies in the US. In the UK, it built the Covid dashboard, which saw data on vaccines, virus deaths and hospitalisations tracked daily during the pandemic and in 2023 won the contract for the NHS Federated Data Platform, which links patient records across services. All data used will be handled securely and in line with patient privacy rules, the Department of Health and Social Care said. Ministers say the AI warning tool will transform how safety issues are identified, helping to prevent crises before they escalate. The technology will look for unusual trends, such as sudden rises in harm, or differences in performance between similar services. Where concerns are raised, they will be investigated quickly, without waiting for complaints, whistleblowing or formal inspections to begin. Officials say this will help catch issues that are typically missed during routine inspections or reporting. The system will use information from the NHS Federated Data Platform, which links patient records across services, subjecting it to advanced AI analysis to spot trends. Ministers say the measure is a crucial part of shifting the NHS from an analogue to a fully digital system. This is one of three goals of the 10-Year Health Plan, alongside a shift from sickness to prevention and to deliver more care outside hospitals. Under the plan, supermarkets will be ordered to cut up to 100 calories from the average shopping basket in a new drive to tackle obesity. Prof Meghana Pandit, the NHS co-national medical director for secondary care, said: 'The move will turbo-charge the speed and efficiency with which we identify patient safety concerns and enable us to respond rapidly to improve patient care.' Sir Julian Hartley, CQC chief executive, said the watchdog would use data on 'inequalities in access, experience and outcomes to spot and act on risk earlier'. He said: 'We are already developing our new clearer, simpler, assessment approach, and in the future our experienced teams of inspectors, led by our newly appointed chief inspectors, will be able to conduct more inspections and share feedback on the findings more quickly – so that providers can make faster improvements, and the public have timely information about care.' However, Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said that reforms should focus on boosting the NHS workforce. 'The guaranteed way to improve care is to raise staffing levels,' she said. 'In the NHS today, one nurse can be left caring for 10, 15 or more patients at a time. The situation is drastically unsafe. 'By the time an inspection takes place, it could already be too late. Technology will always have a role to play, but having the right number of staff on the front line of care is the place to start the investment to make patients safe.'
The Sun
29-06-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Lucy Letby and Harold Shipman-style NHS killing sprees will be prevented in future with high-tech AI reforms
HI-TECH NHS reforms will help to prevent the next Lucy Letby or Harold Shipman, Wes Streeting has vowed. The Health Secretary has insisted his AI rollout will stop serious incidents slipping through the net. 2 He says he will introduce new measures to identify patterns of abuse, serious injury and deaths via an early alert system — part of a ten-year plan to be unveiled later this week. Mr Streeting last night said: 'Even a single lapse that puts a patient at risk is one too many. 'Behind every safety breach is a person — a life altered, a family devastated, a heartbreaking loss. 'By embracing AI and introducing world-first early warning systems, we'll spot dangerous signs sooner and launch rapid inspections before harm occurs.' Nurse Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital. GP Shipman is thought to have killed more than 200 patients over two decades. He was convicted in 2000 and died in 2004. The technology, still in development, will flag safety issues in real time — allowing Care Quality Commission officials to investigate and take immediate action. Top NHS figure Prof Meghana Pandit said it would 'turbo-charge' the speed and efficiency of identifying patient concerns. It came as Mr Streeting last week ordered a national investigation into maternity services. Women and babies had been left at 'considerably higher' risk than what was necessary.
The Independent
20-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
NHS health professionals fear palliative care after Harold Shipman murders
An MP has claimed that health care professionals in the NHS are cautious about administering palliative care following the Harold Shipman murders. Speaking during the assisted dying bill debate in the House of Commons on Friday (20 June), Sir Edward Leigh urged his fellow MPs to take a 'pause' and ask the Health Department on 'whether it is possible to have decent palliative care'. 'There's no doubt that in recent years, particularly since Shipman, there has been a fear amongst many health professionals in the NHS about providing that degree of hugely effective modern drugs,' he said. Shipman was an English doctor who murdered about 250 of his patients between the 1970s and 1990s, who died when he injected many of them with lethal doses of diamorphine.
Daily Mail
18-06-2025
- Daily Mail
I don't know if Lucy Letby's innocent or guilty. But I was Health Secretary when many of those babies died - and I believe her case MUST be re-examined: Bombshell intervention by JEREMY HUNT
Few criminal cases in modern British history have played on the public conscience quite like that of Lucy Letby. A neonatal nurse convicted of the worst betrayal of trust possible: the deliberate harming and killing of babies under her care. Letby's case stands alongside that of the GP Harold Shipman – who was sentenced to 15 life terms for murdering 15 patients but is thought to have killed at least 215 people in all – as one of the darkest moments in the history of the NHS.
