PITY II - Alder Hey Press Information

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Alder Hey Press Information

Alder Hey - Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust

27 February 2003

Press conference

At a press conference held today as part of the mediated settlement between parents involved in organ and tissue retention, the Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust and The University of Liverpool, The Trust Chair Angela Jones said,

"We welcome this opportunity to speak, through the press, to parents who have been involved in organ retention.

During the past few months we have worked with solicitors for parents who were claimants in the Royal Liverpool Children's Group Litigation Order, to try to find a mediated solution, which would bring closure to this issue for parents and the Trust.

A set of proposals was developed and these were sent to parents to see whether they were acceptable. At the present time 99.8% of parents have accepted these proposals.

As part of the mediation proposals, the Trust willingly agreed to make a formal and public apology for organ and tissue retention, which occurred in past times and for the way in which enquiries were handled for some parents.

The death of a child brings inconsolable grief and the Trust, through me today, profoundly apologises where we made this suffering worse.

During the last three years or so, we have dealt with thousands of enquiries from anxious parents. Although the Trust has a policy of openness and frankness, we have learnt, to everyone's cost, that it has not always been possible to give timely, and on occasion, accurate information straight away. We deeply regret this and again apologise for the distress this will have caused.

Alder Hey has learned many lessons during the last three years. We have prepared a short information pack, which is available for you today. The pack briefly outlines some of the many changes we have introduced to try and ensure that this sort of situation does not happen again.

In the pack, there is a section on developments in the Histopathology Service and the recent accreditation visit, which was undertaken by the Clinical Pathology Accreditation Team. I am proud to tell you that the Chief Executive has now been formally notified that full accreditation has been awarded to the Trust's Histopathology Service.

The new facilities were formally opened on 24 January 2003

In addition to the apology we are making here today, the Trust Chief Executive will be writing to all parents personally who have made an enquiry and for whose child or children there was organ or tissue retention. We have not limited the letter to parents who are part of the mediation or litigation process. Only those parents who have requested no further contact with the Trust will not receive a letter.

We anticipate that the letters will be sent out during the course of the next few weeks.

We sincerely hope that these apologies together with the action on the remainder of the mediation agreement will finally allow parents and staff at the Trust to have some peace and to move forward with their lives and their work.

Ends

PITY II (Parents who have Interred Their Young Twice) is the parents' support group set up in the wake of the organ retention scandal
at Alder Hey Hospital (Liverpool, UK). It aims to provide self help support and advice to affected families.

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