THE Crown Office has ordered an investigation into the deaths of two women after their illnesses were allegedly misdiagnosed by hospital staff.

They died of brain haemorrhages after scans at Wishaw General, Lanarkshire. Hazel Ferguson's death took place in November 2001. A post-mortem examination revealed the 35-year-old mother-of-one from Wishaw had died of the haemorrhage, but the circumstances were such that the procurator-fiscal was concerned there could be more victims.

She spoke to fiscals elsewhere in Lanarkshire to establish if other deaths had been linked to Computerised To-mography (CT) scans at the hospital.

It was then revealed that three months before Mrs Ferguson's death, Catherine Dishington, a 55-year-old woman from Coatbridge, died in similar circumstances. A fatal accident inquiry will now be held into whether staff at the hospital failed to establish what was wrong with both women.

Mrs Ferguson was an in-patient at the time, while Mrs Dishington, who had two children and three grandchildren died at home.

The Crown Office said: ''These were two quite separate deaths some time apart. The procurator-fiscal investigating one death made some checks with colleagues and it was then that the circumstances of the other death came to light.''

Mrs Dishington's husband, Gordon, said his solicitor told him his wife's death was being linked to that of another woman. ''Other than that, I don't know anything about the other woman's circumstances.''

The hospital stated: ''As this case is currently subject to a inquiry, we are unable to comment at this stage. However, we have been and will continue to co-operate fully with the procurator-fiscal's office re-garding any information they require.''