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May 2000
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News ReleasesMay 2000Contents Previous Releases:
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Inquiry announces date of Interim Report launchThe Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry has announced today (04/05/00) the date and venue for the publication of its Interim Report on retention and use of human material. This Interim Report will be launched at 10.30 am on Wednesday 10 May 2000 at the Institute of Civil Engineers, 1 Great George Street, London. The Report has been prepared to assist the Chief Medical Officer for England (CMO), who was asked last year by the Secretary of State for Health to investigate this issue. The CMO will make his final report in September 2000. The Bristol Inquiry concentrates on parents and their children. Where a child died after surgery, the treatment of that child’s body after death, and of the child’s parents, all constitute a part of the Inquiry’s consideration of the paediatric cardiac service in Bristol between 1984 and 1995. The Inquiry Chairman, Professor Ian Kennedy, has said that not only does the subject of the removal, retention, use and disposal of human material form part of the Inquiry’s wider examination, but that, on hearing the evidence relating to this issue over the past year in Bristol, the Inquiry panel agreed that this was an issue of great and grave concern on which they should report. It first came to light on day 45 of the Inquiry’s first phase (7 September 1999), during the evidence of Professor Robert Anderson, Professor of Paediatric Cardiac Morphology, University College London. ENDS Notes for Editors: Reporters, photographers and camera crews are invited to attend the launch of the Inquiry’s Interim Report at the Institute of Civil Engineers, 1 Great George Street, London, at 10.30am on Wednesday, May 10. Please contact the Inquiry press office on 0117 938 8716 if you wish to attend. Embargoed copies of the Interim Report will be available from 9am that morning at the launch venue. Inquiry press office staff will be available to assist members of the news media. The Inquiry’s website address is: www.bristol-inquiry.org.uk. Professor Robert Anderson’s evidence can be found at: Daily Transcripts, Day 45. See the Issues List (Issue J) for a description of the subjects covered in relation to Post-mortems and Inquests There is no agreed definition of "organ" or "tissue". The word "tissue" is seen by some as meaning not only small sections of tissue but also whole organs and parts of organs. Most people, however, would not regard organs as being the same as tissue. Thus, even if asked whether "tissue" could be retained, parents would not understand this to mean their child’s heart or other organs. This is just one of the many barriers to communication and understanding which lie at the root of the problem being examined. The Inquiry will adopt in the Interim Report its own general term, "human material", to avoid confusions associated with other definitions. When this term is used it includes not only tissue in its various forms, organs and parts of organs, but also any other human material. The Inquiry takes the term "removal" to mean the short-term removal of human material and then re-uniting it with the body before burial or cremation. It takes the term "retention" to mean human material which is removed and then not immediately re-united with the body, either retained short-term (for further tests) or long-term (for such purposes as medical education or research). For further information please contact Richard Green, Head of Communications, Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry, tel (0117) 938 8709 or Bleep 0181 345 6789 and ask for INQ 102; or Becky Jarvis Media Relations Manager, Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry, tel (0117) 938 8716. 04 May, 2000
Inquiry Interim Report makes nearly 70 recommendations The Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry Interim Report dealing with the removal, retention, use and disposal of human material after post-mortem has made nearly 70 recommendations. The report concentrates on parents and their children. Inquiry Chairman Professor Ian Kennedy said the aim of the detailed recommendations was to replace an existing system of uncertainty and obscurity, in which the medical profession set the agenda and parents were excluded, with a system which is clear and enforceable, where the doctor and manager are accountable and the parents are at the centre. The report, to the Chief Medical Officer for England (CMO), recommends a new Code of Practice at the very least and, if possible, new law. The Inquiry Panel recommends Government backing for the new Code which must have teeth and be enforceable. The Inquiry Panel has recommended that the Coroners Rules should be amended and that the Code of Practice should form part of the contract of employment of doctors and that NHS Trust Chief Executives should be responsible and accountable for enforcing it. If a doctor breaches the proposed Code, disciplinary action could, therefore, follow. Professor Kennedy said: "We were particularly concerned to learn lessons from the past so as to shape practice for the future. He said: "The past was characterised by a type of professional arrogance: an arrogance born of indifference. The medical profession acted with good intentions as they saw it." "The past was also characterised by an obscurity and lack of clarity in the law, the available guidance, in the very language of "tissue" and "organ". This obscurity and uncertainty served the interests of the professionals: reflecting the medical culture of the time, they put the interests of medical-scientific development, legitimate as that may be, before any real consideration of the interests of grieving parents." The Interim Report notes that the motives for removing and retaining human material were praiseworthy: to benefit future patients by enabling doctors to learn from the sad death of a child. Professor Kennedy said: "For the future, we should not abandon the aims and intentions of advancing knowledge and treatment. We must, however, change the practice. Parents should no longer be left out. They must be at the centre." The Inquiry Panel recognise that the way forward they suggest will need cross-government co-ordination and that the CMO, as the Chief Medical Officer to the government, is uniquely placed to bring together those at the highest level in the relevant departments to address these matters. For further information please contact Richard Green, Head of Communications, Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry, tel (0117) 938 8709 (direct) 0777 575 4204 (mobile) or bleep 0181 345 6789 and ask for INQ 102. Notes for Editors: the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry Interim Report, "Removal and retention of human material", will be available on the Inquiry’s website from 11am today (May 10). The website address is www.bristol-inquiry.org.uk 10 May 2000 |