Data disaster

The process by which about 800,000 people had their wishes about the use of their organs wrongly recorded on the donor register would be seen as farce were it not so distressing. While the NHS will contact about 20 families who allowed organs to be taken after being misinformed about their loved ones' consent, it is possible this number could rise further.

For their loved ones – who may take some comfort from the fact that seriously ill people benefited from their relatives' organs –

an inquiry will be painful but necessary.

As well as asking how such an appalling series of events came to happen, the review, by Professor Sir Gordon Duff of Sheffield University, must also ask whether the Government has learnt the lessons of past tragedies. The removal of organs from dead babies at Alder Hey hospital, in Liverpool, in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a disgrace and practices were supposed to have changed since then.

Patients are also likely to be concerned at the frequency of medical blunders during Labour's time in office, whether Ministers have been involved or not. From problems over the introduction of a costly NHS computer system, to the loss of hundreds of thousands of people's medical records, identified in 2007 and again last year, it is a depressing record.

These issues are not for Professor Duff's inquiry but they must be a priority for the Department of Health. So, too, must be the problem caused by a conflict between the wishes of someone who has died and their family over organ donation. For now, however, it is vital to simply show respect for the dead and get the basics right.