Paediatric pathology service close to collapse

Women who miscarry or lose a baby shortly after birth but are refusing to allow a postmortem examination to be carried out are missing out on vital information that could help them to have a healthy baby, doctors have warned.

Public confidence in paediatric pathology has plummeted in the aftermath of the retained organ affair at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, with the specialty now close to collapse. An exodus of experienced doctors has left services seriously understaffed, and, unless the public can be reassured of the value of perinatal postmortem examinations, many families will never know why their baby died …