Bodies found in state of 'advanced deterioration' at under-fire trust

Problems with post-death care came to light after the parents of Harriet Hawkins, who was stillborn under the care of NUH in 2016, discovered her body had been allowed to decompose so badly that it had to be triple-bagged for her funeral.

A subsequent investigation found 17 areas of concern and prompted an examination by the independent maternity review into the after-death care provided to 16 other babies and one mother.

They found that one early gestation baby had been disposed of as clinical waste, the wrong baby had been passed to funeral directors and a mother who died had deteriorated so badly that her family were advised not to see her, prior to her funeral.

"The review found evidence of recurring examples of failure to protect the dignity of the deceased... including inadequate arrangements for undertaking paediatric post-mortems," Ockenden said in her report.

The problems prompted the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), which regulates mortuary care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to examine the trust's services.

In an unannounced inspection, external, which was carried out in March 2026 but only published this week, it found three critical shortfalls, six major and one minor against its standards at the two hospitals run by the trust, the QMC and City Hospital.

The HTA found lack of freezer space at both Nottingham hospitals meant some bodies had been put in a refrigerated area instead.

Eight of the bodies were showing "advanced deterioration" because they had not been transferred to a freezer in time.

Instead of being conducted in a post-mortem suite, some baby post-mortem examinations were carried out in a laboratory that was inadequately ventilated, with support staff who had not been trained in mortuary care, the HTA found.

HTA inspectors also said "identification wristbands were not always checked when transferring bodies in hermetically sealed body bags into the care of funeral services".

"The mortuary uses hermetically sealed bags for bodies in a state of deterioration; however, these seals are not opened at the point of release.

"As a result, identification is verified solely against accompanying documentation rather than by confirming the wristband on the deceased.

"This increases the risk of the wrong body being released to funeral services," the report added.

An accompanying audit found just over half of the 145 recorded incidents that should have been escalated to the regulator were not.