Bereaved parents across the UK are experiencing devastating delays of over a year to discover why their children died, as a critical shortage of NHS specialist doctors prevents timely postmortem examinations.
Service in Total Collapse
A damning report from the Royal College of Pathologists reveals the NHS has too few paediatric and perinatal pathologists, with services in some regions described as having 'totally collapsed'. The situation is so dire that in areas like Northern Ireland and parts of England, the bodies of babies and children must be transported elsewhere for examination.
Dr Clair Evans, chair of the college's advisory committee for under-18s care, stated unequivocally: 'Our service is in crisis.' She emphasised the profound impact on families, who regularly report 'long and harrowing waits for postmortem results.'
The Stark Numbers Behind the Crisis
The workforce audit uncovered alarming statistics about the scale of the problem:
- 37% of consultant pathologist posts across the UK are currently vacant
- The entire country has just 52 paediatric and perinatal consultants
- 13 of these specialists are due to retire within the next five years
- Only 3% of current consultants believe staffing levels can sustain services
- Merely 13 trainee doctors are in training to fill these critical roles
The geographical disparities are particularly stark. Wales functions with just two consultant paediatric and perinatal pathologists, while Northern Ireland, the south-west and Midlands of England have none at all.
Families Paying the Price
The human cost of these shortages is immense. One in five families now wait six months or more for results, with some facing delays exceeding twelve months. The BBC recently highlighted the case of Katie Louise Llewellyn and Aled Wyn Jones from Carmarthenshire, who waited 13 months to learn why their three-year-old son Tomos died unexpectedly during a family holiday.
Dr Clea Harmer, chief executive of baby loss charity Sands, confirmed the report 'adds to growing evidence that workforce shortages are causing unacceptable and heartbreaking delays for bereaved parents.' She noted that at Sands, they regularly hear about the devastating impact of these lengthy delays, leaving parents 'in limbo' without the answers they need to plan their futures.
Postmortem examinations serve a crucial purpose beyond determining cause of death. They 'can help parents in the process of closure and give information that aids treatment in subsequent pregnancies,' the college's report emphasised.
While the Department of Health and Social Care acknowledged that delays are 'unacceptable', they pointed to record doctor numbers and commitments to create 1,000 new specialty training posts. However, with current trainee numbers critically low and retirement looming for many existing consultants, families continue to face what Dr Harmer describes as 'the agonising gap between a baby dying and parents finding out why it happened.'
