Hospitals should cremate or bury aborted foetuses rather than incinerating them, the medical director of the NHS in England says. 
 
 The move by Prof Sir Bruce Keogh comes after it emerged that some hospitals have been burning foetuses as clinical waste. 
 
 Channel 4 Dispatches programme says 10 NHS trusts have been burning remains alongside rubbish. 
 
 It claims two more disposed of bodies in incinerators used to heat hospitals. 
 
 Health minister Dr Dan Poulter said this practice was "totally unacceptable". 
 
 "That is why I have asked Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, to write to all NHS hospital trusts, to make it clear that it must stop now. 
 
 I am disappointed trusts may not be informing or consulting women and their families Professor Mike Richards, Care Quality Commission 
 
 "The chief medical officer has also written to the Human Tissue Authority to ask them to make sure that there is clear guidance on this issue. 
 
 "While the vast majority of hospitals are acting in the appropriate way, that must be the case for all hospitals and the Human Tissue Authority has now been asked to ensure that it acts on this issue without delay." 
 
 'Disappointed' 
 
 The HTA has a code of practice for the disposal of human tissue, which includes foetal remains, that hospitals should follow. 
 
 It says women who have had an abortion or miscarriage should be informed that there are different options available - burial, cremation and incineration. 
 
 It says disposal via incineration should be handled as "sensitive" and therefore should not be done alongside the burning of waste. 
 
 In his letter, Prof Keogh says he believes it would be better not to use incineration at all. 
 
 "While it is acknowledged that incineration is not illegal across the UK, existing professional guidance makes clear that the practice is inappropriate. 
 
 "I share the view that incineration of fetal remains is inappropriate practice and that other methods offer more dignity in these sensitive situations." 
 
 The Dispatches programme claims some women were not told that their aborted foetus would be incinerated as waste. 
 
 Professor Sir Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals, from the Care Quality Commission, said: "I am disappointed trusts may not be informing or consulting women and their families. This breaches our standard on respecting and involving people who use services and I'm keen for Dispatches to share their evidence with us. 
 
 "We scrutinise information of concern and can inspect unannounced, if required." 
 
 Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity, said the practice of incinerating pre-24 week foetuses is unacceptable and that whenever possible, cremation should be used instead. 
 
 A spokesperson said: "Research has shown that the stage the pregnancy has reached when the baby dies is not an accurate predictor of the length and depth of the grief the parents will experience. 
 
 "Foetus is not a term that parents use or that should be used with them. From the day the pregnancy is confirmed they are expecting a baby. 
 
 "The death of a baby at any stage of pregnancy is a major bereavement with life long consequences. 
 
 "The care that parents receive cannot lessen their pain, but poor and insensitive care can and does make matters worse both in the short and the long term." 
 
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 Addenbrooke’s Hospital burned 797 foetuses at its 'waste to energy' plant 
 
 Actress Amanda Holden, who suffered a miscarriage herself in 2010, and delivered a stillborn son in 2011, is hosting Channel 4's Ending Hospital Heartache 
 
 Thousands of miscarried and aborted babies have been incinerated by NHS hospitals without their mothers’ knowledge, an investigation has found. 
 
 
 
 The government was forced to ban the practice after it emerged that 15,500 foetal remains have been incinerated by 27 trusts over the last two years alone. 
 
 
 
 The bodies are being burned as ‘clinical waste’, while at two trusts they were put into ‘waste-to-energy’ furnaces which generate power for hospitals. 
 
 
 
 One devastated mother who suffered a miscarriage was told her child would be ‘incinerated with the rest of the day’s waste’. 
 
 
 
 The scandal of how the NHS treats parents who lose a child in early pregnancy was uncovered as part of a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be broadcast tonight. 
 
 
 
 Last night health minister Dan Poulter stepped in to order an immediate ban on incinerating foetal remains. 
 
 
 
 ‘This practice is totally unacceptable,’ he said. ‘That is why I have asked Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, to write to all NHS hospital trusts, to make it clear that it must stop now. 
 
 ‘The Chief Medical Officer has also written to the Human Tissue Authority to ask them to make sure that there is clear guidance on this issue. 
 
 ‘While the vast majority of hospitals are acting in the appropriate way, that must be the case for all hospitals and the Human Tissue Authority has now been asked to ensure that it acts on this issue without delay.’ 
 
 Cathryn Hurley, 35, found out during a 13-week pregnancy scan that her baby had died at eight weeks, and later underwent a medical procedure to remove the foetus. 
 
 
 
 She said: ‘I was hysterical. I was crying. I asked one of the nurses what would happen to my baby; and she just said - well, it will be incinerated with the rest of the day’s waste. 
 
 
 
 ‘That was really difficult to hear because to me it wasn’t waste, it was my baby.’ The trust involved cannot be named for legal reasons. 
 
 
 
 The programme reveals that Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge incinerated 797 babies below 13 weeks’ gestation at their own ‘waste to energy’ plant. 
 
 
 
 Channel 4 programme Dispatches: Ending Hospital Heartache reveals how Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, pictured, incinerated 797 babies below 13 weeks' gestation at their own 'waste to energy' plant 
 
 Forms handed to women at the hospitals say the remains are ‘cremated’ - making no mention of ‘incineration’. 
 
 
 
 It goes against advice from Sands, the neonatal death charity, which states that incineration, under which the remains are burned along with the rest of the waste, ‘must not be called cremation’. 
 
 
 
 Another ‘waste to energy’ facility at Ipswich Hospital has incinerated 1,101 foetal remains between 2011/12 and 2012/13. 
 
 
 
 They were brought in from another hospital before being burned, generating energy for the hospital site. Ipswich hospital itself uses cremation, and the furnace facility is run by a private company. 
 
 
 
 The programme is hosted by actress and Britain’s Got Talent star Amanda Holden, who suffered a miscarriage herself in 2010, and delivered a stillborn son in 2011. 
 
 
 
 The bodies are being burned as 'clinical waste', while at two trusts - including Addenbrooke's in Cambridge - they were put into 'waste-to-energy' furnaces which generate power for hospitals 
 
 She said: ‘I was shocked at some of the discoveries I made during filming. The mothers I spoke to said that despite the best intentions of individual nurses and doctors, they sometimes felt that hospitals weren’t as compassionate as they should be towards them. 
 
 
 
 ‘I am absolutely delighted that the government has announced a ban on this practice. The change in policy means an end to the misery and prolonged anguish of many parents across England.’ 
 
 
 
 The Care Quality Commission watchdog has also said it will investigate the programme’s findings. 
 
 
 
 Professor Sir Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals, said: ‘I am disappointed trusts may not be informing or consulting women and their families. This breaches our standard on respecting and involving people who use services. 
 
 
 
 ‘We scrutinise information of concern and can inspect unannounced, if required.’ 
 
 
 
 A total of one in seven pregnancies ends in a miscarriage, while NHS figures show there are around 4,000 stillbirths each year in the UK - or 11 each day. 
 
 
 
 A spokesman for the Cambridge University Hospitals trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s, said: ‘Trained health professionals discuss the options with the patients and families respectfully and sensitively, both verbally and in writing. 
 
 
 
 ‘The parents are given exactly the same choice on the disposal of foetal remains as for a stillborn child, and their personal wishes are respected.’ 
 
 
 
 Ipswich trust said it was concerned to discover that foetal remains from another hospital were incinerated on its site. 
 

– British hospitals have incinerated more than 15,500 aborted and miscarried fetal remains over the years, at times to generate power for heat in "waste-to-energy" plants, the Telegraph reports. A UK television show revealed the practice tonight, but health officials beat them to the punch by banning the practice yesterday. In all, ten hospitals have admitted to incinerating fetal remains with other garbage, while two leading hospitals—Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge and Ipswich Hospital—said they burned about 1,900 of them at energy facilities. Until now, British law has required hospital staff to offer women who have a miscarriage or abortion three options: incineration, cremation, or burial, the BBC reports. But forms given to women mention "cremated" and make no mention of "incineration" with the daily trash, reports the Daily Mail. At times, hospital staff actually told the real story: "I was hysterical. I was crying," said a 35-year-old woman who learned at a 13-week scan that her baby had died at 8 weeks. "I asked one of the nurses what would happen to my baby, and she just said, 'Well, it will be incinerated with the rest of the day's waste.'"