Flint promises to act on Shipman report
Home Office Minister, Caroline Flint has promised to act on a report from the Shipman Inquiry into the management of controlled drugs.
This is the fourth report into the activities of Dr Harold Shipman, who is believed to have killed around 250 people over a 30 year period.
He killed most of his victims, mainly elderly and ill patients, through injections of diamorphine and related drugs of which he had acquired significant stockpiles.
Dame Janet Smith, head of the Shipman Inquiry, said that the “inspection and monitoring of controlled drugs is fragmented and unsatisfactory”. She recommends that a controlled drug inspectorate should be set up to monitor and audit prescription, storage and dispersal of controlled drugs by GPs and pharmacists.
Dame Janet also recommended greater restrictions of the prescribing of controlled drugs by GPs- including banning them from prescribing for their own use and suggests that private (non NHS) prescriptions for controlled drugs should be written on a special form.
But she admitted that even the adoption of all her recommendations “could not be guaranteed to prevent a dishonest doctor or healthcare professional from obtaining an illicit supply of a controlled drug.
“However, they would make it more difficult for him/her to do so and would also make it more likely that such an activity, if repeated, would be detected. The increase in the likelihood of detection would, I believe, have a powerful deterrent effect.”
Responding, Home Office Minister, Caroline Flint, said: “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.”
Ms Flint was cautious about whether the exact proposals would be implemented, saying: “We will need to study them carefully and in consultation with existing inspectorates, patients, NHS and police organisations, and the healthcare professions.
“In particular, we will be seeking the views of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) which has already begun some valuable preparatory work on possible improvements to the present system and on the legislative changes that would be required.”
Ms Flint said that she accepted the report’s conclusion that “more could be done to deter and detect improper use” of controlled drugs.
The report was also welcomed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Mandie Lavin, director of legal affairs and fitness to practise, said: “We strongly support action to strengthen the safeguards which prevent poor practice and ensure that any health professional posing a risk to public safety is identified and appropriate action taken speedily.”
