Medical certs destroyed for dead children

Missing certificates on the deaths of children could have helped establish whether post-mortems were done unnecessarily, the …

Missing certificates on the deaths of children could have helped establish whether post-mortems were done unnecessarily, the Parents for Justice group said last night.

Medical certificates of cause of death are written by the last doctor to attend a patient, but until recent years they have been destroyed after information is extracted from them for the death certificate and for general statistical purposes.

The medical certificates had been sought by parents of children who died and on whom post-mortems were performed. Parents in the Parents for Justice group believe they contain information vital to the inquiry into the retention of the organs of children after post-mortems.

The group is to meet the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

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The website irishhealth.com yesterday revealed that certificates for years before 1989 were missing. In a statement on the report, Mr Martin said the practice had been to destroy the medical certificates after extraction of information because of the sheer volume. That practice had stopped in February 2000 when he announced his intention to establish the inquiry.

Certificates for 1989 to 1996 are currently being scanned and indexed, with the exception of those for 1993 which were destroyed by flood. Medical certificates for 1997 to date are in the possession of the Central Statistics Office.

Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly, of the Parents for Justice group, said the doctors who signed the certificates were the ones who would decide whether a coroner should be involved or a post-mortem sought. "They may be able to throw light on any arrangements with pharmaceutical or research companies," she said.

If it emerged that the date on a medical certificate was earlier than that on the post-mortem report, this would indicate that the doctor was able to establish the cause of death without post-mortem. Parents for Justice believed many post-mortems were unnecessary.

Opposition parties criticised Mr Martin on the issue yesterday.