How to frighten patients

Comment: On the 14th December 2005 Dr Howard Martin was acquitted of murdering three elderly patients after admittedly giving them massive overdoses of morphine. Relatives of the patients who were in the courtroom were shocked by the jury's finding. Police are now sending files on another twelve cases to the Coroner. They had received twenty-eight complaints against Dr. Martin, either directly from his patients' relatives or from the local Primary Care Trust, after a review of medical records. It is now known that Dr. Martin once worked in the same health centre as Dr. Harold Shipman, though they might not have met. Dr Nathaniel Carey, a Pathologist who gave evidence for Dr Martin, may have influenced the jury. He said "It would not be appropriate to include morphine as a cause of death, otherwise we would have to include it for any people that died in a hospice." (BBC News Wednesday, 14 December 2005.) Dr Richard Lamerton, former Medical Director of the Hospice of the Valleys, commented today (17th December): "It is a pretty pathetic doctor who does not know the highest safe dose of morphine for any particular patient. "Hospices do not have morphine to shorten people's lives, and used in the correct doses it doesn't do so. It was irresponsible of Dr Carey to suggest otherwise, because that will frighten patients who are in Hospices." If any links are broken on this page, please Click here to let the webmaster know.