A spelling mistake and failures by mortuary staff to carry out adequate identity checks led to the wrong body being cremated at the funeral of an MEP, a report has found.
The mix-up resulted in the body of a man called Phil Bradburn being cremated instead of that of the West Midlands Conservative MEP Philip Bradbourn.
An investigation concluded that a series of checks and processes were not followed and there was a “failure of adequate identification and checks at multiple points”.
Bradbourn, 63, died at Good Hope hospital in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, last December after suffering from bowel cancer. But another man’s body was cremated at the Tory politician’s funeral at Wolverhampton’s Bushbury crematorium the following month – that of Phil Bradburn, who died at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham at around the same time as the politician.
On Thursday the Heart of England NHS Trust, which runs the Good Hope hospital, released the report flagging up a series of problems with how mortuary staff and funeral directors dealt with the men’s bodies.
The investigation revealed that Bradbourn’s name was spelt incorrectly on paperwork. On 2 January a request was made to move four bodies – including Bradbourn’s – to Central England Co-operative funeral directors by Good Hope hospital because of lack of space at its mortuary.
The names of those to be moved were given over the phone but not followed up with an email listing their names and addresses, as should have happened.
Bradbourn’s body was collected but four days later returned to Good Hope when his next of kin asked to change his planned burial to a cremation. Meanwhile, Bradburn’s body was also sent back to the hospital mortuary over concerns it had been at the funeral directors for a long period of time.
Confusion followed and Bradburn’s body was accidentally released for cremation rather than Bradbourn’s. The MEP’s friends expressed horror when they were told about the blunder the next month and a second funeral was held in February.
A series of recommendations were made in the report, including that staff should be instructed that “any anomalies, however small” should be passed on to managers.
It also pointed out that mortuary fridge capacity was “inadequate”, leading to bodies being held at an off-site mortuary, which increased the number of “custody handovers”.
The report concluded: “In summary, the wrong deceased patient was released and subsequently cremated.
“The normal process was complicated by the use of an off-site mortuary and particularly by the return of the deceased patient to the original hospital mortuary.
“It has been established that appropriate identifiers were available on both the documentation and the deceased patient but that checking procedures did not recognise that that there was a discrepancy.”
In its findings, the report noted that procedures were adequate but were not consistently followed due to an “over-reliance on name over other data items”.
Dr Andrew Catto, the medical director of Heart of England NHS foundation trust said: “We are very sorry that this incredibly distressing situation has happened.”
A spokeswoman for funeral directors Central England Co-operative said: “We welcome the publication of this report, which reflects a rare and complex set of circumstances, involving a number of parties.
“Our priority has been to work closely with all concerned so that we can learn from this unfortunate incident and build further appropriate safeguards for the future.
“We recognise the distress which has been caused to both families involved in this incident and our thoughts are with the families that have been affected.”
It also emerged that a hospital mortuary technician had been off work ill as a result of the ordeal and faces disciplinary charges.
Bradbourn had been a town planning officer in local government for more than 20 years before becoming political adviser to the Conservative group at Wolverhampton city council. He was awarded an OBE in 1994 for his public and political services.
David Cameron described the MEP’s dedication to public service as “truly admirable”.
