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Some of the images associated with the organ retention issues at Alder Hey Hopsital in Liverpool, UK

 
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animated presentation of the words "Never Again!"

Alder Hey: Anger and Expectation: Reflections on Organ Retention


Pity II has received the following from Dr. Philip Cheung. Philip served on the Retained Organ Commission and is writing a book about the organ retention issues at Alder Hey hospital.

Alder Hey: Anger and Expectation: Reflections on Organ Retention
By Philip Cheung
Publication February 2006-02-22

It is going on six years since events at Alder Hey became headline news. In 2001 the Retained Organs Commission was set up to locate and return parts of the body that had been taken and retained.

In the summer of 2005 the General Medical Council held disciplinary proceedings against a pathologist who apparently collected parts of the body on an especially large scale. So the consequences of what went on at Alder Hey and elsewhere are still being experienced.

Doctor Philip Cheung, a member of the Retained Organs Commission has set out to give his account of the experience of the families, to record the role of the voluntary organisations, charities and patient support groups, and to examine the problems of trust in the NHS.

'The families were angry (and may still be). The relatives experienced renewed and unnecessary grief and may still do. They have expectations for the future. That doctor's should be open with them. That the NHS should pay attention to parents and families when significant problems arise. That the practice of post-mortem examination in the coroner's courts and in hospital should be more straight forward and humane'.

How bad has the issue of the trust in the NHS become?
How can doctors take pride in their job and responsibility for their conduct?
How can patients and families be protected?
What changes are being made, are they the right ones, and what reforms would be useful?

This book is certainly not a prescription that gives answers. Alder Hey - anger and expectation seeks to give a general record of experience and an impetus to the reforming process that the Chief Medical Officer called for in his own words 'never again'.

Available from bookshops in February 2006 and the publisher Smith-Gordon.

To charities and families and patient support groups: If you would be interested to help distribute news of this publication through your organisation please contact:

email smithgordon.com

Tel: 020 7351 7402 to receive a free copy of the book for review.

Address for orders and enquiries
R. Harris, 47 Worthing Road, East Preston, Nr. Worthing, West Sussex. BN16 1DE.

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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