"Doctor of Death" claims one more..

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
I wonder if Great Britain retroactively corrected the crime statistics during the years that he was active? His activities may have significantly increased the homicide rate for the country as a whole in some years.

There was probably not enough evidence in most of the cases for the coroner's office to find the deaths wrongful.

Likely the number 215 was arrived at through some reasonalbe assumptions about cases that suddenly went south. Until they could provide concrete evidence of wrongful death, they would not be ruled homicides, and would not be entered in crime statistics, AFAIK

[KrazyHorse]

And as to the suicide, if the person is shown to be legally competent I see no reason why anybody should interfere. Have him sign a form and give him a noose.

[East Street Trader]

The typical gaol suicide is young, male, on remand for a relatively petty crime, schizophrenic and very upset and disorientated.

The notion that they know what they are doing is, frankly, bizarre.

Shipman is another kettle of fish altogether and in his particular case I rather agree with you. But it beggars belief that we will ever come across another human being as weird as he.

[Cruddy]

Bit of a mystery this as his appeal was coming up, and he claimed innocence till the day he died.

Some of the victims reletives feel robbed that he didn't do his time.

Maybe we should wire up heartbeat sensors to all prisoners to make sure they don't get the easy way out?

[CerberusIV]

15 he was convicted of, 200 more then have decided he did and 45 are still being considered.

The best thing about this, apart from "good riddance", is that it will hopefully kill off, or at least reduce, the number of books and articles written by people trying to cash in on his crimes. At least he can't now give interviews and string the gullible idiots along the way some other notorious murderers are doing.

And any campaign in future to get him released or transferred to a less strict prison just got washed out.

[Zylka]

link

[CerberusIV]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3394811.stm

Shipman was jailed for life in January 2000 for murdering 15 patients while working as a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester.

An official report concluded he killed at least 215 patients over a 23-year period, but that the final death toll could be as high as 260.

[Zylka]

Yes I saw that part

The real question and general abandonment of mankind comes at this point:

Dr. Shipman's lawyer, Giovanni di Stefano, told The Evening Standard of London that prison officials failed to safeguard his client. "The fact that he had done this is an outrage and the fault lies entirely, absolutely with the authorities."

why..

WHY

[Lefty Scaevola]

I take it these case are not judged standard practice in socialized medicine?

[East Street Trader]

Our doctors lack a commercial motive for overpresribing and excessively intrusive medical procedures, Lefty.

They usually leave such things to those with a profit motive.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Zylka
Yes I saw that part

The real question and general abandonment of mankind comes at this point:



why..

WHY

Don't be so dumb, Zylka.

First, the lawyer is going to sue for however much he can screw out of the system. He's just lost a lot of bread from the guy dying.

Second, if you deny people freedom to punish them (what prison is all about) then you inherit responsibility for their welfare.

Get it now? I understand the Dr was checked every hour or so.

Last year 100 prisoners successfully killed themselves in Brit jails.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by East Street Trader
Our doctors lack a commercial motive for overpresribing and

Likewise, they lack a commercial motive for providing a level of service and dignity to the patients (or even to keep them alive), and have that (hopefully small) portion of their motivation replacement by bureacractic considerations. I had all of two years with medical insurance of any kind, and I cheerfully escaped from that horror, where you are treated as a claim form and not a patient (besides 70% increased medical costs {whoever had to pay them} to cover all the additional paper work).

[East Street Trader]

They do indeed lack commercial motivation.

Instead they are mostly (leaving the weird Dr Shipman to one side) motivated by a desire to help their patients.

We do not lack for bureaucracy in our health service but it tends to be decently confined to cases where clerk deals with clerk. Patients are relatively little involved with form filling.

And, of course, issues as to who pays don't generally arise.

There are considerable problems with publicly funded health care. But the motivation of the doctors is not one. And whenever I hear tell of the US situation I find myself giving thanks for what we have. Viewed from a distance, health care operated as a business seems a horrid thing.

Oh, and nice to meet up with you again, Lefty.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
Likewise, they lack a commercial motive for providing a level of service and dignity to the patients (or even to keep them alive), and have that (hopefully small) portion of their motivation replacement by bureacractic considerations. I had all of two years with medical insurance of any kind, and I cheerfully escaped from that horror, where you are treated as a claim form and not a patient (besides 70% increased medical costs {whoever had to pay them} to cover all the additional paper work).

Despite those theories, the NHS is the most respected organisation in Britain- it even leaves the BBC trailing a distant second. Though cack-handed governments and dozy administrators mean waiting lists for some procedures are unfortunately long, we have a good and universally-available health service.

It's one thing about Britain I'm very proud of.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Sounds decent enough. They must be doing some sort of good job administratively to keep the numbers of providers and other personnel high enough to make it work that well. So, East Street, Trader, when are you going to get to texas for some Barbeque?