Monitoring mortality rates in general practice after Shipman

Monitoring mortality rates in general practice after Shipman.

Following Shipman: a pilot system for monitoring mortality rates in primary care.

As part of the investigations into the crimes of Harold Shipman, it has become clear that there is little monitoring of deaths in general practice. By use of data on annual deaths at family physician and practice level for five English health authorities for 1993-99, we investigate whether cumulative sum charts (a type of statistical process control chart) could be used to create a workable mon...

Can mortality monitoring in general practice be made to work?

Routine monitoring of UK GPs’ mortality rates has been recommended by the Shipman Inquiry, and is likely to be implemented soon. In this Journal, Mohammed et al are to be applauded for their rigorous attempt to address the potential problems of such monitoring. In particular, they describe the application of structured investigation to practices with unexpectedly high or low mortality rates tha...

Mortality variations as a measure of general practitioner performance: implications of the Shipman case.

Changes in the organisation of the NHS or in the management of health professionals are often made within the context of inquiries into specific medical catastrophes rather than through a measured process of policy formulation. Examples include changes in the scrutiny of psychiatric services after the Ely report into malpractice at a Cardiff hospital and, more recently, changes in doctors’ self...

After Shipman: reforming the GMC--again.