No deceased left out of fridges overnight

Today I am updating the House on the response to those recommendations. The Trust published an assurance statement in February 2024 on the implementation of the recommendations from the Phase 1 report. This sets out the progress made to implement the Inquiry’s recommendations.

The range of actions taken by the Trust include requiring that non-mortuary staff and contractors are always accompanied by another staff member when visiting the mortuaries; controlling access to mortuaries using swipe cards; mandating contractors to renew security clearances every three years; and installing CCTV coverage monitoring access to and from mortuary areas. The Trust Board is also providing greater oversight and assurance of legally regulated activity in the mortuary.

I am also reassured that NHS England’s South East regional team held monthly oversight meetings with the Trust between November 2023 and April 2024 (in partnership with Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board) to ensure progress against the Inquiry’s recommendations and to review evidence of the Trust’s progress in delivering their action plan. Ongoing compliance with the Inquiry's recommendations will be monitored by NHS England through regular regional oversight meetings with the Trust, and through other channels as appropriate.

The Trust now complies with this recommendation in full on the following basis:

• The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) undertook a comprehensive inspection of the Trust’s mortuaries in June 2022. The Trust retained its licence, subject to corrective and preventative actions being implemented to meet the shortfalls identified during the inspection. The HTA confirmed that it was satisfied that the Trust had completed the agreed actions in the corrective and preventative action (CAPA) plan and in doing so had taken sufficient action to correct all shortfalls addressed in the Inspection Report.

• The Designated Individual and Persons Designate maintain all standards and report through Governance to ensure they continue to meet standards.

• The practice of leaving deceased people out of mortuary fridges overnight, or while maintenance is undertaken, was ceased in early 2021. The prohibition of this practice has been formalised in a local policy.

No statement on delivery from Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.