An investigative report by Dispatches, a current affairs documentary series broadcast on one of the United Kingdom's public television channels, has ignited worldwide outrage with horrific revelations about the use of aborted and miscarried fetuses as heating fuel.

The program, which airs on Channel 4 and has been in production since 1987, revealed at least 15,000 aborted and miscarried fetuses were incinerated by 27 U.K.-based healthcare management systems, otherwise known as trusts, to provide heat for hospitals.

According to Dispatches, the fetal remains used in hospital furnaces was actually just a portion of a much larger number of unborn fetuses, many of which were simply burned as "clinical waste."

The data collected by the television program covered only the last two years. So far, 10 of the healthcare trusts have admitted to burning fetal remains with the refuse.

After the episode in question aired this last Sunday night, the U.K.'s Department of Health issued a country-wide ban on the practice.

Health Minister Dan Poulter publicly proclaimed incinerating fetuses as the hospitals did was completely unacceptable. He added that he had asked the country's Human Tissue Authority to investigate the matter and hold accountable those found responsible for the way the fetuses were treated.

At the same time, it should be noted mothers who have undergone abortions or suffered miscarriages are typically informed the hospital authority will cremate the babies.

The program noted during its report that Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, one of the biggest hospitals in the U.K., incinerated 797 fetuses of less than 13 weeks gestation, while Ipswich Hospital Trust reportedly incinerated more than 1,000 fetal remains between 2011 and 2013.

Officials at Ipswich, however, said they were shocked by the revelations about the discarded remains, as waste-to-energy system is operated by a private contractor.

Nonetheless, said a hospital spokeswoman: "The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust does not incinerate fetal remains."

Sir Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals, said he was disappointed with the trusts and believed mothers were not adequately informed about the practice.