The public inquiry in Britain into the convicted murderer and former GP, Harold Shipman, will investigate the deaths of 466 of his patients, it was announced yesterday.
At the first public session of the inquiry in Manchester, its chairman, the High Court judge, Dame Janet Smith, told relatives of suspected victims that the number, which could rise, was not an estimate of people killed by Shipman. In many cases it would be possible to say there was "no cause for suspicion", and Dame Janet anticipated that in some cases she would not be able to determine whether Shipman had played a role in their relatives' death.
"There will be several hundred deaths in which I can say yes or no. I hope that will bring a sense of closure," she said.
Shipman, who declined an invitation to participate in the inquiry, was sentenced to life in prison in January last year for the murder of 15 of his women patients during a 24-year medical career. Hundreds of families have since come forward to express their concern about Shipman's treatment of their relatives.
The public inquiry will examine the deaths Shipman certified during his three years in practice in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and later in Hyde, Greater Manchester. The files on 110 patients have already been closed, mainly because their deaths were not considered suspicious, but over the two years of its investigation the inquiry will attempt to contact the relatives of a further 152 patients.
The main difficulty faced by the inquiry is that the majority of medical records belonging to patients who died before 1991 were correctly and routinely destroyed and in cases prior to 1984 few medical records remain.
But Dame Janet pledged to do her utmost to end relatives' uncertainty, "which has prevailed for so long and which has caused so much distress".
At a later stage when the number of deaths Shipman is considered to be responsible for is determined, he will be contacted again and given the opportunity to respond.