WORCESTER doctors are planning to set up new procedures to ensure there could never be a repeat in the city of the Harold Shipman case.

Dr Shipman is serving life after being convicted of murdering several of his patients while practising as a GP in Hyde, Cheshire.

They plan to keep records of how many deaths each GP has overseen.

The proposals have been raised independently by the Worcester City Primary Care Group. It predicts that the Government might make such processes a requirement in order to track down killer doctors such as Harold Shipman.

The plan is similar to many others across the country which have been implemented in the wake of the scandal.

Neill Bucktin, PCG chief officer, was keen to stress that the group did not anticipate any problems but thought it was wise to have a strategy.

"We're expecting there will be something similar from the Government, but it is something we decided to do," he said.

"We just wanted a process to make us more aware of what the death rates are.

"It's as a result of the Harold Shipman case and is one means by which processes might be able to identify potential problems."

Options to track death rates include monitoring the number of death certificates signed by individual doctors, or keeping track of the total referred to the coroner.

Once the figures are collated they will be compared to other surgeries' figures to highlight any problems.

But some members were critical of monitoring coroner referrals.

"If we're sending them for a post- mortem then it's highly unlikely we bumped them off ourselves," said Dr Rod Mackichan.

"I think it's important that individual practices know their own death rates and compare them to other surgeries'," said Dr Richard Whitmore, chairman of the PCG.