Shipman inquiry recommends tighter rules on controlled drugs
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《英国医生杂志》
Dame Janet Smith
Credit: PHIL NOBLE/PA
Dame Janet Smith, the appeal court judge heading the inquiry into the activities of the British GP Harold Shipman, who killed at least 215 patients, called last week for a tighter system of regulating controlled drugs.
Dame Janet made the recommendation in the fourth of five reports from her inquiry, drawing lessons from Dr Shipman's ability to get the large quantities of diamorphine that he used to kill the patients at two practices in the north of England between 1975 and 1998.
A key recommendation is for the creation of a national inspectorate of controlled drugs, not only to try to prevent a recurrence of such serial killing but also to crack down on the misuse of prescription drugs by doctors.
Dr Shipman, who was jailed for life for 15 counts of murder in 2000, was found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison last January. Between 1992 and 1998, according to the report, he illicitly obtained 24000 mg of diamorphine.
Dame Janet called for a nationally coordinated but regionally based inspectorate similar to the one already operating in Northern Ireland. Its responsibilities would include disposing of surplus controlled drugs after a patient's death.
She also recommended restrictions on doctors prescribing controlled drugs for their own or their immediate family members' use, prescribing outside the requirements of their normal clinical practice, and prescribing if they had convictions for controlled drugs offences. Dr Shipman had convictions arising from his addiction to pethidine in the 1970s.
The report also proposes greater regulation of the handling and safekeeping of controlled drugs from the supplier to the patient's home and that doctors should provide a complete "audit trail" to account for the movement of controlled drugs at each stage—but without interfering with patient care.
The Home Office minister Caroline Flint said the government accepted Dame Janet's conclusion that much more could be done to deter and detect improper use of drugs. "In acting on her report we are determined to ensure that all reasonable measures are taken to provide the robust safeguards which are needed and which the public can rightly expect."(Clare Dyer, legal corresp)
Credit: PHIL NOBLE/PA
Dame Janet Smith, the appeal court judge heading the inquiry into the activities of the British GP Harold Shipman, who killed at least 215 patients, called last week for a tighter system of regulating controlled drugs.
Dame Janet made the recommendation in the fourth of five reports from her inquiry, drawing lessons from Dr Shipman's ability to get the large quantities of diamorphine that he used to kill the patients at two practices in the north of England between 1975 and 1998.
A key recommendation is for the creation of a national inspectorate of controlled drugs, not only to try to prevent a recurrence of such serial killing but also to crack down on the misuse of prescription drugs by doctors.
Dr Shipman, who was jailed for life for 15 counts of murder in 2000, was found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison last January. Between 1992 and 1998, according to the report, he illicitly obtained 24000 mg of diamorphine.
Dame Janet called for a nationally coordinated but regionally based inspectorate similar to the one already operating in Northern Ireland. Its responsibilities would include disposing of surplus controlled drugs after a patient's death.
She also recommended restrictions on doctors prescribing controlled drugs for their own or their immediate family members' use, prescribing outside the requirements of their normal clinical practice, and prescribing if they had convictions for controlled drugs offences. Dr Shipman had convictions arising from his addiction to pethidine in the 1970s.
The report also proposes greater regulation of the handling and safekeeping of controlled drugs from the supplier to the patient's home and that doctors should provide a complete "audit trail" to account for the movement of controlled drugs at each stage—but without interfering with patient care.
The Home Office minister Caroline Flint said the government accepted Dame Janet's conclusion that much more could be done to deter and detect improper use of drugs. "In acting on her report we are determined to ensure that all reasonable measures are taken to provide the robust safeguards which are needed and which the public can rightly expect."(Clare Dyer, legal corresp)