GMC hearing opens into doctor at centre of organ retention scandal
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《英国医生杂志》
The General Medical Council has begun its long delayed hearing into the case of pathologist Dick van Velzen, who illegally kept thousands of children抯 organs at Liverpool抯 Alder Hey Children抯 Hospital. The hospital had a public relations disaster in 1999, when an internal inquiry found that hundreds of children抯 organs had been kept after autopsy without parents?permission. The revelations triggered a temporary decline in organ donations, and led the government to promise new legislation on organ storage. That legislation was passed last year as the Human Tissue Act.
An independent inquiry led by Michael Redfern QC concluded in 2001 that Professor Van Velzen had "systematically, illegally, and unethically" taken organs from hundreds of children. But Professor Van Velzen has always maintained that he was made a scapegoat for systemic failures because he is a foreigner.
Professor Van Velzen was not present as the hearing opened this week and sent no representative. He is currently living in his native Netherlands. The GMC Fitness to Practise Panel in Manchester heard that he had been notified of the case but had told a solicitor for the GMC in 2002 that he was "not the least bit interested in receiving information about GMC proceedings."
He was suspended by the GMC in February 2001 pending further investigation, but the GMC inquiry against him was halted while the Crown Prosecution Service considered criminal charges. The GMC reactivated its own investigation in December, after the Crown Prosecution Service announced that "there was no prospect of being able to establish that a criminal offence had been committed."
Professor Van Velzen was, however, convicted in Canada in 2001 on an unrelated charge of improperly storing body parts. He received a conditional discharge and a sentence of a year抯 probation. That case stemmed from his time running the pathology department at the WK Grace Health Centre in Nova Scotia, a job he took after leaving Alder Hey in 1995.
When he arrived as the new head of fetal and infant pathology at Alder Hey in 1988, Professor Van Velzen was expected to lead groundbreaking research into sudden infant deaths. But Andrew Collender, for the GMC, told the Manchester hearing that the pathologist抯 methods soon "led to a build up of unprocessed organs in storage pots stored in a particular building in the hospital."
"Investigations carried out after September 1999 found more than 2000 pots containing organs from approximately 850 postmortem examinations in store at the hospital," said Mr Collender. In many cases, he said, parents "only became aware of that long term retention many years after their child had been buried or cremated梐 circumstance causing considerable and understandable distress."
Professor Van Velzen also produced "false and misleading" postmortem reports, Mr Collender told the hearing. He recounted cases in which Professor Van Velzen抯 reported individually weighing organs, or slicing them into blocks and slides for examination. Subsequent examination of the organs showed that these procedures had never been done, said Mr Collender.
If found guilty of serious professional misconduct, Professor Van Velzen could be struck off the UK medical register. Regulatory authorities in other countries would be notified and could take discretionary action of their own.(Owen Dyer)
An independent inquiry led by Michael Redfern QC concluded in 2001 that Professor Van Velzen had "systematically, illegally, and unethically" taken organs from hundreds of children. But Professor Van Velzen has always maintained that he was made a scapegoat for systemic failures because he is a foreigner.
Professor Van Velzen was not present as the hearing opened this week and sent no representative. He is currently living in his native Netherlands. The GMC Fitness to Practise Panel in Manchester heard that he had been notified of the case but had told a solicitor for the GMC in 2002 that he was "not the least bit interested in receiving information about GMC proceedings."
He was suspended by the GMC in February 2001 pending further investigation, but the GMC inquiry against him was halted while the Crown Prosecution Service considered criminal charges. The GMC reactivated its own investigation in December, after the Crown Prosecution Service announced that "there was no prospect of being able to establish that a criminal offence had been committed."
Professor Van Velzen was, however, convicted in Canada in 2001 on an unrelated charge of improperly storing body parts. He received a conditional discharge and a sentence of a year抯 probation. That case stemmed from his time running the pathology department at the WK Grace Health Centre in Nova Scotia, a job he took after leaving Alder Hey in 1995.
When he arrived as the new head of fetal and infant pathology at Alder Hey in 1988, Professor Van Velzen was expected to lead groundbreaking research into sudden infant deaths. But Andrew Collender, for the GMC, told the Manchester hearing that the pathologist抯 methods soon "led to a build up of unprocessed organs in storage pots stored in a particular building in the hospital."
"Investigations carried out after September 1999 found more than 2000 pots containing organs from approximately 850 postmortem examinations in store at the hospital," said Mr Collender. In many cases, he said, parents "only became aware of that long term retention many years after their child had been buried or cremated梐 circumstance causing considerable and understandable distress."
Professor Van Velzen also produced "false and misleading" postmortem reports, Mr Collender told the hearing. He recounted cases in which Professor Van Velzen抯 reported individually weighing organs, or slicing them into blocks and slides for examination. Subsequent examination of the organs showed that these procedures had never been done, said Mr Collender.
If found guilty of serious professional misconduct, Professor Van Velzen could be struck off the UK medical register. Regulatory authorities in other countries would be notified and could take discretionary action of their own.(Owen Dyer)