Britain Unveils Plans to Foil New "Dr Death"

Britain launched plans on Monday to set up a rapid response clinical agency to stop potential serial killers like "Dr Death" Harold Shipman, who may have murdered up to 300 patients.

The National Clinical Assessment Authority (NCAA), which will start work in April, is designed to intervene rapidly when complaints and suspicions emerge about a family doctor or practice, the Reuters quoted Health Minister John Denham as saying.

The launch of the new body followed a chilling report last week, which said that Britain's most prolific serial killer, family doctor Harold Shipman, may have killed up to 297 of the patients in his care over more than two decades.

Shipman, dubbed "Dr Death" by the tabloids, was jailed for life last year for murdering 15 elderly women patients with lethal injections of heroin.

The murder toll estimated in the government report would put Shipman among the world's worst mass killers in recent history.

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