GPs concerned over ‘Shipman effect’ in palliative care

GPs are worried about prescribing palliative drugs due to the ‘Shipman effect’, according to new reports.

Numerous doctors are reluctant to prescribe the drugs fearing that they may draw the stigma attached to palliatives, after the case of Harold Shipman. The multiple murderer has become infamous in public minds having killed over 200 patients through the administration of lethal doses of controlled drugs.

Dr John Grenville, a spokesman for the British Medical Association, told the BBC that many doctors are anxious about having to prescribe the drug.

He said: “I would worry that [doctors] are worrying themselves unnecessarily and that what they should be doing is discussing their fears and anxieties with their colleagues and with experts in the field to ensure that their practice is the best possible practice based on the evidence that we currently have.”

“Realistically, I don’t think they have anything to fear at all providing that they are practising within guidelines, that they are doing their best for their patients which I’m sure most doctors are and providing that they are not trying by their actions to do things which are not allowed by the law,” he added.

Dr Grenville added that “there has always been a degree of variation” in the dosage that GPs provide, with the general trend now being towards lower levels of treatment.

He continued that people are tending to start with low levels of treatment rather than high levels now in order to control pain and limit side effects.

Harold Shipman was jailed for life for murdering 15 patients while working in Hyde, Greater Manchester, though it is thought he killed many more.

He died in 2004 after being found hung in his prison cell.

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