Shipman chemist 'failed public'

Shipman collected diamorphine from Mrs Brant's pharmacy

A pharmacist who provided Harold Shipman with a drug which he used to kill patients "failed" the public, a disciplinary hearing has been told.

Ghislaine Brant, who managed a pharmacy near Shipman's former surgery in Hyde, Gtr Manchester, was appearing before the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

It heard Mrs Brant failed to spot unusually high amounts of diamorphine collected by Shipman, 57.

But she could not have known what he was doing with the drug, it was said.

'Failed duty'

Alison Foster, counsel for the Society, said: "It is the society's case that Mrs Brant failed in her duty in not recognising that the repeated doses of 30mg of diamorphine gave rise to queries about its use that Mrs Brant should have raised with the doctor.

"The dosage is neither one thing nor the other. It is too much for acute pain caused by a heart attack and too little for an established programme of palliative care."

In the fourth report from the Shipman public inquiry, Mrs Brant was criticised for not picking up on the GP's unusual prescription demands.

Inquiry chairman, Dame Janet Smith, said Mrs Brant had "lost her professional objectivity when dealing with Shipman" and had "plainly not applied her mind" when considering whether the dosage was appropriate for a patient.

Shipman was jailed for killing 15 of his women patients but Dame Janet's inquiry later decided the 57-year-old had killed at least 250 patients over 23 years.

Mrs Brant faces seven charges relating to the supply of diamorphine between February and August 1993.

One of them states that she failed to act towards Shipman in a way that was to the benefit and welfare of the public .

The hearing continues.