There have been more than 530 serious incidents where NHS trusts have released the wrong body to families or lost, damaged or kept the organs or bodies of babies without family permission, new figures reveal.
Data on serious incidents within NHS mortuaries shows there were 55 cases where mortuary staff handed over the wrong body since 2017.
There were also 35 instances where a baby’s body was lost, damaged or its organs were retained after death against the express wishes of parents.
More than 180 bodies were damaged while being storied in hospital mortuaries or during post-mortems while 37 organs were lost by staff.
The data from the Human Tissue Authority reveals serious incidents in NHS mortuaries has been falling in recent years, but the errors still affected more than 100 families in the latest year to March 2021.
The professional body for mortuary staff, the Association of Anatomical Pathology Technology, warned NHS trusts were often recruiting unqualified cheaper staff to work in mortuaries and is lobbying ministers to change the rules so staff have to be properly…
