THE organisation running the majority of midwifery and neonatal services in Worcestershire is meeting national requirements in dealing with the remains of aborted or miscarried babies.
There was outcry in March this year when it was revealed a number of hospital trusts in England and Wales had incinerated the remains of fetuses which had not been carried to term.
Following the revelation the Department of Health imposed an immediate ban on the practice and NHS medical director Sir Bruce Keogh wrote to all hospital trusts asking them to review their procedures.
A meeting of the board of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – heard the organisation was complying with guidelines on the practice.
Trust chief executive Penny Venables said the organisation was looking into what else could be done to make the experience of would-be parents who have lost or aborted a child easier.
“We have assured ourselves that largely we are complying with all the requirements,” she said.
“There is work we are doing with undertakers and talking to other trusts about the work they are doing.
“There are difficulties in that lots of crematoriums won’t accept products of conception.
“We are in discussion with Birmingham Women’s Hospital about what they have done.”
Products of conception is the medical term for the tissue produced from the union of an egg and a sperm.
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