Post-mortems on NI babies to take place in England

Post-mortems on babies, infants and late miscarriages in Northern Ireland will be carried out in Liverpool from January, due to staff shortages.

The only pediatric and perinatal pathologist in Northern Ireland is due to leave his post in February 2019.

The Health and social care board have been unable to find a replacement meaning remains will be sent to Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool.

Around 240 autopsies are carried out on infants here annually.

Heather Reid, Public Health Specialist at Health and Social Care Board said: "We recognise that the loss of a child is one of the most devastating events that can ever happen to a family and fully accept that the prospect of the post-mortem being performed outside Northern Ireland may compound the distress experienced by families.

"While we will have to adapt our service, we want to assure parents that they will continue to have the choice of whether or not to go ahead with a hospital post-mortem. We also believe there are opportunities to provide post-mortem findings more quickly and enhance the support and information families receive.

"While it is acknowledged that a service outside of Northern Ireland is not what we would wish for, working closely with a much larger centre such as Alder Hey will provide a more robust service in the interim period."

Ms Reid added: "We are working closely with families, staff, charities and other partners to take every possible step to ensure that any baby or child who requires a post-mortem is treated with the utmost respect, dignity and sensitivity throughout their journey now and in the future and that families will have our full support when facing these very traumatic circumstances.

"In the meantime, the wider Health and Social Care system will continue to exhaust all efforts to try to ensure that a local service can be provided in Northern Ireland in the longer term."