Inspectors from the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) have revealed that babies were mistreated in death as well as during their short lives at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, with eight bodies found in advanced decomposition due to a lack of freezer space. The report, published on Wednesday, also highlighted that a lack of checks in the mortuary increased the risk of the wrong body being released to funeral services.
Ockenden Report Reveals 520 Cases of Avoidable Harm
The findings come as part of a broader investigation into the trust's maternity care, led by top midwife Donna Ockenden. Her report, also released Wednesday, found that 520 mothers and babies had suffered potentially avoidable harm or died. The trust has been mired in a maternity scandal over hundreds of deaths of babies and pregnant women.
Problems with the trust’s mortuary services first came to light after Jack and Sarah Hawkins, whose daughter Harriet was stillborn in 2016, discovered her body had been allowed to decompose so badly that it had to be triple-bagged for her funeral. The HTA report, from March, stated that at the city’s Queen’s Medical Centre, “due to the lack of freezers, it has become routine to use body bags to store the deteriorating deceased.” The inspection team identified eight bodies showing advanced deterioration.
Additional Failures and Police Investigation
In one case, the wrong baby was released to a funeral director, and in another, a stillborn girl remained in a fridge when she should have been taken to the mortuary. Separately, Nottinghamshire Police announced on Monday that two men had been arrested in connection with practices in the trust’s mortuary service.
Chief executive Anthony May told BBC Radio 4: “I take responsibility and accountability for that… That happened on my watch. I’m very sorry. I’m really disappointed. The dignity and respect of people in death matters just as much as it does during their lives.”
Trust’s Action Plan and Ongoing Oversight
May noted that the issue initially came to his attention after a maternity family found information in a subject access request about how the trust had cared for their daughter. The trust immediately commissioned a review with the family and a separate review into mortuary services. “We work closely with the police and the regulator. The regulator eventually came and inspected our services and found further shortfalls. We’ve got one action plan now submitted to the regulator,” he said. That action plan will have independent oversight to ensure proper governance and assurance. “We do still have the licence from the HTA, but we need to make sure we fulfil every single aspect of it,” May added.
