SIX GPs and a pathologist criticised by the inquiry into Hyde serial killer doctor Harold Shipman will face Professional Conduct Committees, the General Medical Council confirmed on Tuesday.

Dr Peter Bennett, Dr Susan Booth, Dr Jeremy Dirckze, Dr Stephen Farrar, Dr Alistair MacGillivray and Dr Rajesh Patel worked as GPs in Hyde, Greater Manchester, where Shipman's practice was based.

The six regularly signed cremation forms for Shipman, as another doctor is needed to confirm a patient's death.

They were criticised by the Shipman Inquiry for failing to question the doctor's unusually high death rates, his presence at many deaths and his use of terms such as "old age" and "natural causes'' under the Cause of Death section of the form. The doctors signed a total of 214 Form Cs for Shipman's patients. The inquiry ruled that 124 of those patients were unlawfully killed.

Inquiry chairman Dame Janet Smith said in the conclusion to her third report: "The Brooke Practice doctors convinced themselves that the high number and apparently unusual features of Shipman's patient deaths were attributable to the prevalence of elderly patients on his list and the way in which he conducted his practice.

"Although, with the benefit of hindsight, it can clearly be seen that all these unusual features were, in fact, present because he was killing his patients, I do not think it would be fair to suggest that the Brooke Practice doctors should have appreciated the significance of the different factors before they did.

"All the Hyde doctors now accept that, if they had questioned a relative or person with knowledge of the death, they would in many cases have discovered facts which would have caused them to refuse to sign Form C." No dates have yet been set for the six GPs' Professional Conduct Committee hearings.

Dr David Bee was a consultant pathologist whose post mortem on one of Shipman's victims was described by Dame Janet as "deeply flawed" and "lax."

He admitted to the Inquiry feeling a pressure to find natural causes of death in order to avoid an inquest. His hearing is listed to take place on September 27.

Shipman killed at least 215 people over 23 years by deliberately administering overdoses of the painkiller diamorphine. He was jailed for life in 2000 for 15 counts of murder but was found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison in January this year.