A failure of respect at aWelsh hospital

AGREAT hospital depends on the skill and dedication of staff and their relationship of trust with the public.

People need to know that those employed in the NHS will be treat their love ones with the greatest respect at every stage of their journey through the system.

It is deeply disturbing to learn that the tissue of 42 people had been retained for too long at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. Human tissue should be disposed of within three months but in the worst case it was kept for five years.

The organs retained included five brains. Inspectors found the mortuary was not cleaned adequately and the security systems were not up to scratch.

The health board is right to apologise “unreservedly” but people will demand a true change in culture and ask why such failings have tolerated for so long.

Wales has blazed a trail in moving to a opt-out system of organ donation but this will only work if families are in no doubt that the deceased will be accorded the greatest dignity.

At present, the board is in the process of disposing of the tissue of 38 patients. It is understood the tissue is linked to post-mortem examinations ordered by coroners and the police.

The death of a loved one is a trauma for any family; the process of a postmortem is a further strain; the knowledge that proper processes have not been followed will be a cause of grief.

In allowing this scandal to take place, the board has treated neither the tissue nor the relatives with due respect. As the inspectors say, processes were “not fit for purpose”.

In total, the inspection identified “failings in three critical areas, 14 major areas and nine minor areas”.

How can things have reached such a shameful state? No-one in the NHS should need an education in the extreme sensitivity related to the handling of human tissue.

The outrage at the Alder Hey organs scandal shook the health establishment and left the country in no doubt about the anguish that relatives can suffer.

Patients and their families will want assurances that the failings exposed here are not mirrored in other departments. We know that the NHS is under financial pressure but leadership and values should ensure that standards do not sink so abysmally.

There are 850 post-mortem examinations every year at the hospital. This institution should be a centre of excellence rather than the scene of a fiasco.

For nearly two decades, Wales has run its own health system. Devolution can only be judged a success if it fosters a higher standard of services, both in terms of clinical results and the confidence it inspires in the citizens of this nation.

Mistakes will be made in any large organisation – and there are few organisations on the scale of the NHS. But as this sorry episode demonstrates, vigilance is required to prevent failure on such an unacceptable scale that it could weaken that precious bond of public trust. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2016 was 62.8%