{"id":517640,"date":"2026-06-25T11:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517640\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:43:09","slug":"bodies-in-nottingham-nhs-trust-mortuary-in-state-of-advanced-deterioration-inspectors-say-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/517640\/","title":{"rendered":"Bodies in Nottingham NHS trust mortuary in state of \u2018advanced deterioration\u2019, inspectors say | NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bodies in the mortuary at the NHS<\/a> trust at the centre of the health services biggest ever maternity care scandal were found in a state of \u201cadvanced deterioration\u201d due to not being transferred to a freezer in time, inspectors have said.<\/p>\n

Human Tissue Authority (HTA) inspectors who visited Nottingham<\/a> university hospitals NHS trust in March discovered eight bodies in a state of advanced decomposition due to not being transferred to a freezer within a sufficient timeframe.<\/p>\n

The inspectors concluded that the trust, which is the subject of the NHS\u2019s largest inquiry into maternity services, has \u201cinsufficient storage to meet the needs of the mortuary service\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"HundredsHundreds of mothers and babies died or were harmed at \u2018toxic\u2019 NHS trust – The Latest<\/p>\n

Inspectors also found that identification wristbands were not always checked when bodies, which were kept in hermetically sealed bags due to their deterioration, were transferred to funeral services, increasing the risk of the wrong body being released to families.<\/p>\n

Problems with mortuary care at the trust emerged after the parents of Harriet Hawkins<\/a>, who was stillborn at Nottingham city hospital in 2016, questioned why her body had decomposed so badly in the mortuary it had to be \u201ctriple-bagged\u201d for her funeral.<\/p>\n

A review published on Wednesday<\/a>, led by Donna Ockenden, an independent senior midwife, found that more than 500 mothers and babies died or were harmed at the \u201ctoxic\u201d trust between 2012 and 2025 due to \u201csystemic, deep-rooted\u201d failures in maternity and neonatal care.<\/p>\n

Ockenden devoted 29 pages of her 400-page report to the Hawkinses\u2019 experiences, arguing their case had many \u201challmarks\u201d of how the trust\u2019s maternity units \u201ccruelly\u201d treated parents and babies.<\/p>\n

Donna Ockenden devoted 29 pages of her 400-page report to the Hawkinses\u2019 experiences. Photograph: Jacob King\/PA<\/p>\n

The chief executive of Nottingham University Hospitals trust, Anthony May, apologised on behalf of the trust after he was asked about the \u201clack of care\u201d shown to bodies in its mortuary during the inspection in March. Commenting on BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme<\/a>, he said: \u201cI will take responsibility and accountability for that, because you\u2019re absolutely right, that happened on my watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sorry. I\u2019m really disappointed \u2026 dignity and respect of people in death matters just as much as it does during their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not name the Hawkinses, but said that the matter had been brought to his attention after \u201cone of the maternity families found something in their subject access requests about the way we cared for their daughter\u201d.<\/p>\n

May said: \u201cWe immediately commissioned, with the family, a review. We commissioned a separate review into the state of mortuary services. Today, we work closely with the police and the regulator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the HTA inspection, the trust has submitted an action plan to the regulator, he said. \u201cThat action plan will have independent oversight so that we\u2019ve got the right governance and assurance in place. We took a lot of actions at the time \u2013 those actions are still under way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re absolutely determined to put this right because local people deserve better, and these services need to be of a higher quality. We do still have the licence from the HTA, but we need to make sure we fulfil every single aspect of it,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n

Separately, two men, aged 55 and 59, have been bailed after they were arrested on Monday<\/a> on suspicion of misconduct in a public office \u201cin connection with operating practices at the mortuary service\u201d, Nottingham police said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe enforcement was carried out by Operation Perth, which is Nottinghamshire police\u2019s investigation into maternity services at both hospitals,\u201d the force said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOperation Perth discovered breaches of regulations of the Human Tissue Act in relation to the management and operating practices of the mortuary services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bodies in the mortuary at the NHS trust at the centre of the health services biggest ever maternity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-517640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}