Research shows some UK hospitals disposed of foetal remains in heating systems

The remains of more than 15,000 aborted or miscarried babies have been incinerated as 'clinical waste' by hospitals in Britain with some used in 'waste to energy' plants which generate power for heat, an investigation has found. Ten NHS trusts have admitted burning foetal remains alongside other rubbish while two others used the bodies in the ‘waste-to-energy’ plants.

The practice was exposed in Channel 4’s Dispatches programme on Monday night: \Amanda Holden: Exposing Hospital Heartache, Monday March 24 at 8pm' See: www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od

The programme was presented by actress Amanda Holden, who has suffered both a stillbirth and a miscarriage but was helped through the trauma by caring treatment from compassionate professionals, as are many parents. But the programme revealed some shocking differences in standards of treatment in different hospitals. Researchers found that parents who lose children in early pregnancy were often treated without compassion and were not consulted about what they wanted to happen to the remains.

One of the country’s leading hospitals, Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, incinerated 797 babies below 13 weeks gestation at their own ‘waste to energy’ plant. The mothers were told the remains had been ‘cremated.’

Another ‘waste to energy’ facility at Ipswich Hospital, operated by a private contractor, incinerated 1,101 foetal remains between 2011 and 2013.

They were brought in from another hospital before being burned, generating energy for the hospital site. Ipswich Hospital itself disposes of remains by cremation.

Last night the Department of Health issued an instant ban on the practice which health minister Dr Dan Poulter said was "totally unacceptable." “While the vast majority of hospitals are acting in the appropriate way, that must be the case for all hospitals and the Human Tissue Authority has now been asked to ensure that it acts on this issue without delay," he said.

Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director, has written to all NHS trusts to tell them the practice must stop.

The Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, has also written to the Human Tissue Authority to ask them make sure that guidance is clear. The Care Quality Commission said it would investigate the programme's findings.

Sir Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “I am disappointed trusts may not be informing or consulting women and their families. This breaches our standard on respecting and involving people who use services and I’m keen for Dispatches to share their evidence with us. We scrutinise information of concern and can inspect unannounced, if required.”

A total of one in seven pregnancies in the UK ends in a miscarriage, while NHS figures show there are around 4,000 stillbirths each year, or 11 each day.

Ipswich Hospital Trust said it was concerned to discover that foetal remains from another hospital had been incinerated on its site. A spokeswoman said: “The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust does not incinerate foetal remains.” She added that the trust “takes great care over foetal remains”.

A spokesman for the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that trained health professionals discuss the options with parents ‘both verbally and in writing.’ "The parents are given exactly the same choice on the disposal of foetal remains as for a stillborn child and their personal wishes are respected,” they added.

On Tuesday, 25 March, Lord Alton tabled a question in Parliament asking when the government first became aware that the remains of aborted and miscarried foetuses had been used to heat some hospitals; and what action they intend to take against those who were responsible making such arrangements.

Lord Alton said: "That NHS officials in the UK would countenance the burning of the remains of miscarried and aborted unborn babies to heat hospitals graphically illustrates our complete indifference to the intrinsic value and worth of every life. It is also indicative of a new brutalism which informs so many of our attitudes.

"The industrialized mass destruction of human life has become a mundane and an everyday occurrence: so routine, that when it is done, over and over again, with around 600 abortions every day in the UK, people stop thinking about the ethics of their actions. Once a society accepts that this routine taking of innocent life is just another consumer choice it's a simple step to treat the mortal remains of a nascent human being as so much rubbish to be burnt - their involuntary contribution to saving the NHS money on heating bills. And those who authorise it see nothing wrong or unusual in their decision.

"In a masterpiece of under-statement, the Chief Inspector of Hospitals says he is "disappointed" by the revelations. It's not the word I would have used. I have tabled a question in Parliament asking the Government when they first became aware that this was happening and what action they intend to take to challenge those who have been responsible."

Source: Lord Alton, Channel 4, NHS