HOSPITALS will now be ordered to get "clear and detailed" consent from families before carrying out a post-mortem operation.

The guidelines have been published in response to the NHS organ retention scandal.

An audit revealed between 50 and 499 organs, body parts, or stillborn foetuses, were stored by York Health Services.

Doctors did not believe they were doing anything wrong, and a practice of removing and keeping organs was commonplace in the NHS.

But Ministers called a halt to the practice of removing organs without consent.

Now a new set of guidelines and consent forms has been published and sent to hospitals across the region by chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson.

It also applies to post mortem examinations carried out by coroners, and is accompanied by a new video for families explaining what will take place.

Yorkshire-based Ruth Webster, who is national co-ordinator for The National Committee Relating to Organ Retention (NACOR), said the group was pleased with the guidelines - particularly the video - but said their success depended on how they were used by individual trusts and individual people.

She said: "The guidelines have to be used in the correct way, and it's still very much dependent on the person the parents meet with immediately after the death.

"Ultimately we would like training for these people, but until there is legislation in place to say these things have to happen we haven't really got any guarantees."

The interim guidance will eventually be replaced by new laws ordering doctors to obtain clear and detailed consent.

Sir Liam said: "This post mortem guidance seeks to strike a balance between the rights of families to choose whether to donate organs and tissue and meeting the needs of medical science and research.

"Seeking patient or family consent is not an optional extra, but an integral part of good clinical care. Concerns about the circumstances in which some human organs and tissue have been removed have tended to overshadow the potentially beneficial uses of post mortems.

"Developments in the treatment of cancer and heart disease have been assisted by the availability of human tissue for investigation and research."

The new laws are also expected to include penalties for doctors who take organs without permission. Ministers are hoping to publish a draft Human Organs and Tissue Bill later this year.

Updated: 10:52 Thursday, May 01, 2003