ABSTRACT
In the United Kingdom (UK) and to a lesser extent in Canada and Australia, healthcare policy has been driven by a need to respond to a series of scandals which have become public, although they relate to events. The scandal at Alder Hey emerged almost accidentally when heart specialist, Professor Robert Anderson, revealed at the Bristol inquiry that a store of children's hearts was kept at Alder Hey. Professor Dick van Velzen, the pathologist at the centre of the Alder Hey scandal, admitted using some organs for research purposes without the permission of the coroner or the consent of parents. In a bizarre and tragic coincidence, Canada has experienced its own parallel scandal to the Bristol case in Winnipeg, Manitoba. One of the major impacts of the UK scandals has been the erosion of confidence in doctors as a profession. The scandals have provided the Government with ammunition to push through the reforms that they would wish to pursue anyway.
