RELATIVES and friends of people killed by Harold Shipman "did not have a clue" who to turn to when they first suspected the GP, the public inquiry into the mass murderer's crimes heard.

Shirley Harrison, whose aunt Erla Copeland and neighbour Mavis Pickup were both killed by the doctor within a year, said she had no idea to whom she should report her suspicions.

Now, she is calling for a system to be put in place that makes it easier for members of the public to raise concerns they may have about medical practitioners - and for the medical profession in general to be "more approachable".

At the inquiry at Manchester Town Hall, Mrs Harrison said: "Apart, perhaps, from speaking to my vicar or my GP, I would not have had a clue who I could have turned to.

"I do think that it would be helpful to people if it was made more easy to report concerns. I think it would be helpful if it was broadly known what people should do, for example, how to go about contacting the right person at their health authority and how to make a complaint."

She added: "I think that if people were made aware of some system or a way to complain, then that would be easier, although, I doubt that the medical profession would want to encourage complaints being made.

"I think that it would be helpful if the medical profession, in general, were more approach- able."

The final stage of the inquiry, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, is looking at the issue of whistle-blowing and why so many people were fearful, as well as unsure, of how to report their suspicions about Shipman to the authorities. Mrs Copeland, a 79-year-old widow, died at her home in January 1996 within 45 minutes of a visit by Shipman to take a blood sample. The inquiry later ruled that she had been killed by him.

Mrs Harrison said she had suspected shortly after her death that Shipman had murdered her aunt, but was "very reluctant to say anything about him", because her aunt and uncle "thought the world of him".

"He was on a pedestal," said Mrs Harrison. "My aunt and uncle thought that Shipman was absolutely wonderful."

She became even more suspicious of Shipman when her neighbour, Mrs Pickup, died in September the following year - but did still not feel that she could report her worst fears.

"Even though I believed that Shipman had killed Mrs Pickup, the overriding thing was that he was held in such high esteem by the people of Hyde, and he could not, therefore, have done anything wrong," Mrs Harrison told the inquiry.

"Even if there had been someone in authority who I could have approached, I do not think that I would have felt able to do so."

Earlier in the inquiry, John Shaw, who worked as a taxi driver in Hyde between 1988 and 1998, told how he had refused to report his concerns when he suspected Shipman was killing his patients for fear of being branded a "paranoid madman".

Mr Shaw, who became suspicious when several of Shipman's patients, who were also customers of his, died, said: "I thought that the police would think that I had gone mad and I had no confidence the General Medical Council would investigate." Tweet