A SPECIALIST nurse has been appointed to sit down with parents and talk them through information released over the retention of their children's organs.

The nurse has been put in place by the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to deal with the sensitive issue.

Last month, the Trust was given the go-ahead to respond to people waiting for information on whether organs from their loved ones had been retained following post mortems.

Around 133 inquiries were received by the Trust and they will all now receive the long-awaited answers to their questions by letter.

The letters have been prepared using guidelines laid out by the Retained Organs Commission, and before they go out, each individual will be contacted by phone and offered the opportunity of having the specialist nurse come to their home and explain the information to them.

Alternatively, they will be offered the opportunity of speaking to the nurse at Ronkswood or the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch. The Trust hopes to respond to everyone by the end of this month.

"We regret the responses have taken a while to organise, but it was necessary to follow through extensive cataloguing and search procedures in order to provide comprehensive and accurate information to people who have made inquiries," said a Trust spokeswoman.

"We're trying to deal with the issue as sensitively as possible and be as helpful as we can in giving out information which some people may find difficult to digest.

"We're offering people the opportunity of having a nurse professional come out and explain the contents of the letter through with them to help them understand instead of just receiving a cold response."

Three weeks ago, it was revealed that the Worcestershire Trust was among the first 100 in the country to be in a position to release details to relatives.

The organ scandal was originally sparked at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool when it was revealed that pathologist Professor Dick van Velzen was accused of "systematically stripping" organs from dead children in a report into the hospital.