SCANDAL OF MORGUE BLUNDERS
Bereaved families left stunned as bodies are damaged, mixed up or misplaced
MISTAKES by mortuaries last year included families being shown the wrong person or not being sent the right body.
Some 75 incidents also involved damage and lack of consent.
Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth said: “These are truly shocking revelations.”
ELEVEN cases of the wrong body being released to funeral directors or bereaved relatives are among 75 major incidents that were reported by mortuaries last year.
There were 28 occasions when bodies were damaged accidentally.
And during one of the five serious security breaches an “unauthorised individual [gained] access to the mortuary”.
The incidents revealed to the Mirror under Freedom of Information laws include two families being shown the wrong body.
Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth said: “When a family is grieving it must be unimaginably awful that something like this happens.
“These are truly shocking revelations. My heart goes out to the families.” There was one case of removal of tissue from a body without authorisation or consent, and one where staff discovered an organ or tissue after the postmortem and release of the body.
Other incidents include major equipment failure, and a postmortem not being done in line with the consent, or proceeding with inadequate consent.
Mortuaries are required to submit reports of major incidents to industry regulator the Human Tissue Authority.
It said mortuaries deal with around 330,000 bodies a year, and errors represent “a very small proportion of cases”.
The HTA added: “When [these incidents] do happen we work with establishments to ensure that a thorough investigation takes place, and improvements are made to reduce the risk of similar incidents happening again.”
Our findings show errors being made after mortuaries were warned of poor practice by the regulator.
HTA inspectors raised 22 concerns about the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough in 2017, including the potential for bodies to be wrongly identified. Our research shows that in 2018, the mortuary released a body to the wrong funeral director – one of four incidents reported by the hospital last year.
A spokeswoman said: “Annually, we release approximately 3,000 bodies from the mortuary, and the four incidents represent 0.13% of the work we do.
“Our mortuary staff take great pride in caring for the deceased and ensuring... families are treated with dignity and respect.” The HTA raised “critical” concerns about the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff in 2017, saying there was “a significant store of whole organs and tissue samples” dating back to 2009.
Inspectors warned of a “significant risk” of remains being kept without families’ consent. Our study shows the hospital reported a case in 2018 of “disposal or retention of a fetus or fetal tissue” against the wishes of the family.
The hospital said: “It was unacceptable. We offered our sincere apologies to the family.” It added it has worked with the HTA to improve standards.
Pinderfields Mortuary in West Yorkshire reported in 2018 that “human error led to accidental damage to a body”. Inspectors visited the next month and said:
“The establishment does not check the condition of bodies regularly.
“At the time of the inspection, two bodies had leaked significantly... excess fluid was pooling on the fridge tray.”
An HTA report into the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wilts, in 2016 said inspectors found “a name on the fridge door did not match the details on the body, whiteboard or mortuary register”. The mortuary reported an incident in 2018 of releasing the wrong body.
The Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester released a body to the wrong funeral director last year.
When HTA staff were at the hospital the next month they found “no written information is obtained from funeral directors to check the identity of a body before it is released”. They also found hair and bodily fluids on the floor by fridges where bodies are stored. Leighton Hospital in Crewe reported “human error led to the short-term release of the wrong body” in 2018. Inspectors visited months later and found staff were still not properly checking identities. NHS trusts withheld some details of the 2018 incidents but in previous years reports included an undertaker finding a brain in the wrong body.
The HTA was established in 2005 in response to the scandal at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool where organs were kept in the 1980s and 1990s without families’ consent.
When a family is grieving this must be awful JON ASHWORTH ON THE ERRORS AT MORTUARIES
MORTUARIES damaging and mixing up bodies is distressing for those mourning lost relatives and friends.
Mistakes happen in every walk of life but that is no excuse for complacency when this scandal deepens the heartache of those who are grieving.