Seven families are to be told their loved ones' body parts have been stored in Bradford hospitals following their deaths.

Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust carried out an audit of 200 organs and tissue samples kept in storage after the outcry over the Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool which stored dead babies' organs without parental permission.

More than 300 distressed callers rang an emergency hotline set up in Bradford, and now seven of those callers are to be told that organs from the deceased relatives have been stored.

In Bradford, some of the body parts are believed to have been kept without parents realising. Other organs and samples may have been retained by the Coroner investigating the cause of deaths.

Now bereavement support staff and medically-qualified personnel will tell relatives face-to-face over the next week after the Government gave authority for the release of the information.

Dawn Mullen, of Undercliffe, whose daughter Joy died of cot death in 1986, said the whole episode had been deeply traumatic.

She said: "God help anyone who's going through this because it's hard. It's like grieving all over again and you have to explain it to your other kids as well."

And she said she felt it damaged trust between parents and hospitals: "I think people would feel an awful lot better if the hospital just said 'sorry' - it would have gone a long way to building bridges.

"I can't believe that it won't still go on, but who is going to go to a chapel of rest and ask for a checklist of what's there?"

Anxious Bradford families have waited nearly four months for news of their loved one's remains because of Government constraints on relaying information.

But they will still not be able to make arrangements for funerals or the disposal of organs and tissues until more national guidelines are published.

The trust's director of corporate affairs, John Damman, said he was pleased that the Government had finally given the authority to release information.

He said: "We haven't yet given any information back to the seven families where we have seen positive matches between a caller's details and what we have got.

"We have a plan for feeding back that information to callers and it will involve a meeting with them if they wish at their own home, with members of their family present for support.

"They will want to ask a whole raft of questions, one of which is what we are we going to do with the organs and tissue. We don't know that yet and we need to be talking sensitively about disposal. It may even involve another funeral."

Pathologists were also being offered counselling to counter the expected psychological effects of breaking the news, he added.

"It's not something they're used to dealing with on this scale," he said.

So far, 196 hotline callers from Bradford have been told there was no evidence that their relatives' body parts had been stored. Forensic cases are still being investigated and no information has been discovered for five callers.

About 100 families, including those with positive matches for body parts, are still waiting for a phone call or letter.

Speaking at a trust board meeting yesterday, the trust's chief executive David Jackson, said he was very concerned about the delays.

He said: "One of the issues that's concerned us is in this process is that when we originally received requests back in January, we told everyone that we expected to receive a clear answer in two weeks. Obviously it's now more than two weeks and only now is it possible to feed back the results. That in itself has caused a lot more anxiety and distress than was necessary."

One Bradford mum, whose baby daughter died of a rare virus nine years ago, said she was appalled that information was still being withheld.

She said: "Parents are in agony waiting to know what's happened. A lot of people don't want bereavement counselling - they just want to know the truth.

"As time goes on, people fear the worse. I want to know exactly what they have kept as I don't trust them."

Deputy chief executive of Airedale Hospitals NHS Trust Janet Crouch said that no tissue samples or organs had been uncovered and that all 39 of their hotline callers had now been notified by letter.