§ Mr. GardinerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the number of patients of Dr. Harold Shipman whose deaths were considered suspicious by the internal investigation conducted by Manchester Health Authority; and how many of these were women. [108298]
§ Mr. DenhamThe investigation of alleged crimes is a matter for the police.
The internal inquiry conducted by West Pennine Health Authority focused on existing monitoring arrangements available to a health authority, and not on the specific circumstances of individual cases.
384WI understand that, at the time that West Pennine undertook its review of monitoring arrangements, the police were investigating the deaths of some 129 people who had been patients of Dr. Shipman, some of which were suspicious. Charges of murder were brought in respect of 15 of these patients, all of whom were women.