A nursing assistant is being investigated in a police inquiry into the deaths of four children at a hospital in England, it emerged yesterday.
The patients all died on a paediatric ward at the Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Buckinghamshire in unexplained circumstances, according to police. Consultants raised the alarm last Monday night soon after the "unexpected" death of a baby on Ward 24 and police arrested the unnamed, woman member of the nursing staff.
Detectives questioned the woman, understood to be a nursing assistant, about the suspicious deaths under caution before releasing her on bail.
The hospital said the "unusually" high number of deaths, over an eight-month period since last July, could just be a statistical "coincidence". Two or three unexpected child deaths a year would be typical at the hospital.
Thames Valley Police said the parents of the children, who were all aged under 16, were very distressed by news of the arrest and investigation.
Ms Margaret Edwards, chief executive of the Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals Trust, said none of the children was being treated for a life-threatening illness. All their post-mortem examinations proved inconclusive.