From the Department of Health (UK) website (http://www.doh.gov.uk)
Milburn promises reforms
after Alder Hey inquiry and pays tribute to parents
30 January
2001
Health secretary Alan Milburn today expressed his sorrow for the wrong done to parents, their families and their children following the inquiry into organ retention at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool.
The inquiry report found a "lack of respect and a failure to appreciate the circumstances which led to the taking of human material" at the hospital which treats 200,000 children a year.
The number of organs retained increased dramatically during a seven-year period in which Professor Dick van Velzen was appointed as chairman of foetal and infant pathology.
According to the report, van Velzen systemically ordered the unethical and illegal stripping of every organ from every child who had a post-mortem. He ignored parent's wishes even when they told him explicitly that they did not want a full post-mortem, let alone the retention of their child's organs.
Mr Milburn told the House of Commons: "It is hard to imagine the trauma and anguish which each of the Alder Hey parents faced when, many years later, they discovered that their child's body had not been buried intact as they believed but had been stripped of their entire internal organs - leaving the body a shell."
The report found that these
practices were compounded by the Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust and the
University of Liverpool failing to monitor van Velzen and failing to take action
to stop him, while treating parents insensitively.
Mr Milburn said: "I am deeply sorry for
the wrong that was done to the parents, their families and their children. Those
who did wrong will now be held to account.
"The parents I have met from Alder Hey and elsewhere have acted with great dignity and purpose. I pay tribute to them today. I hope the reforms we now make will provide some comfort for the pain they have endured."
Van Velzen has now been referred to the General Medical Council for disciplinary action and may never be allowed to practice in this country again. The inquiry report has also been passed to Merseyside Police and to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Four NHS staff, including the current chief executive of the trust, have been suspended today pending disciplinary action. The current acting chairman of the trust is leaving today along with two non-executive directors whose resignations have been accepted by the health secretary.
The Government's chief medical
officer Liam Donaldson has put forward key reforms to the NHS on the issue of
organ retention. Chief among these are proposed changes to the law to enshrine
the concept of informed consent.
This would ensure that parents must give
informed consent for organ retention. Organs and tissues will have to be
specified and it will be a criminal offence to ignore informed consent.
These changes in the law will
also be supported by a new statutory Code of Practice.