Doctors cleared of Shipman misconduct
Two doctors accused of failing to notice “extraordinary coincidences” surrounding the death of Harold Shipman’s patients that could have stopped his killing spree a year earlier were cleared today of serious professional misconduct.
The GPs, who worked in surgeries close to Shipman’s practices and countersigned cremation forms filled out by the serial killer, could have been struck off the medical register if the charges against them were proved.
But doctors Peter Bennett and Rajesh Patel were cleared when the case against them collapsed at the General Medical Council in Manchester.
The case against four other doctors accused of serious professional misconduct - Jeremy Dirckze, Stephen Farrar, Alastair MacGillivray and Susan Booth – will continue at a date to be set.
