PRISON chiefs have rejected claims that killer GP Harold Shipman cares for elderly patients in his North-East jail's hospital wing.

The 56-year-old, serving a life sentence in Frankland Prison, Durham City, has wheeled old inmates about, helped them into bed and collected meals for them, according to the Daily Mirror.

But the Prison Service last night described the story as "rubbish".

Shipman was jailed in 2000 for murdering 15 women patients at his practice in Hyde, Greater Manchester, with lethal morphine injections.

Shipman, a Category A prisoner, was also a GP in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, and, after a drug abuse conviction, worked at a child health clinic in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1976 and 1977.

He has been in the health care unit since he arrived at the maximum security jail.

The report said that "his activities, unnoticed by prison officers until recently challenged, have caused serious concern".

Frankland governor Phil Copple referred Press inquiries to the Prison Service, in London, where a spokeswoman said it did not comment on individual prisoners.

But a source dismissed the story as "rubbish", saying: "He is not caring for other inmates, he is not working with them.

"There is absolutely no chance of him being in involved in the care of elderly prisoners. We wouldn't allow that to happen - for obvious reasons.

"This newspaper (the Daily Mirror) has been pretty irresponsible in presenting the story and causing distress to the relatives of the victims."