Hospital probes foetus bin incident

Mar 22 2013

A health board has apologised after the body of an unborn baby was found in a clinical waste bin at a hospital.

NHS Lanarkshire has said sorry over the distress caused and has launched an inquiry after a foetus was inappropriately discarded at Monklands hospital in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, last week.

Michael Coyle, councillor for Airdrie South in North Lanarkshire, described the situation as "appalling".

He said: "I think it's appalling in this day and age that something like this can happen. There's been no consideration for the feelings of the parents. I think it's absolutely shocking and whoever is responsible has to be sacked because this is unacceptable.

"Parents go through enough whenever they lose a child. It's a traumatic experience all-round and for a wee baby to get dumped into a bin, it's not acceptable. It's not a piece of rubbish, it's a life that's been lost."

Health Secretary Alex Neil, who is also the local MSP for Airdrie, has demanded that procedures be "tightened up" and steps be taken to ensure a similar incident does not happen again.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Neil said: "Something has gone badly wrong with procedures, as a result of which a foetus was wrongly put in a repository that it shouldn't have been put into."

He also said the situation had clearly gone "seriously wrong" as the proper procedure in these circumstances is for foetuses to be stored at nearby Wishaw general hospital, also in North Lanarkshire, where they are kept in a "protected and respectful environment".

Mr Neil added: "The health board is doing two things. Number one, looking at whether the procedure needs tightened up, which clearly it does, to make sure this doesn't happen again, and secondly, obviously looking at why this happened in the first place, and presumably looking at whether disciplinary action of any kind is appropriate.

"Although the family hasn't contacted me as their MSP, very clearly it's a very, very distressing situation. I don't know the circumstances under which the foetus didn't go to full period, but clearly under any circumstances this is a real tragedy, particularly for the mother."