The three doctors at the centre of the Bristol baby heart surgery scandal could face criminal charges after police confirmed they were investigating the affair.

Avon and Somerset Police said that they would be "looking closely" at the findings of the General Medical Council's inquiry which resulted in two doctors being struck off for serious misconduct and another being censured.

Still working: Janardhan Dhasmana

Heart surgeon James Wisheart and the former chief executive of United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust, Dr John Roylance, were struck off the medical register after the GMC investigated the deaths of 29 children at Bristol Royal Infirmary.

The third doctor, Dr Janardhan Dhasmana, was also found guilty of serious professional misconduct but was allowed to continue working within the GMC.

He cannot, however, perform heart surgery on children for three years.

The police force said in a statement that it would be working with the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate the deaths but declined to elaborate further.

Parents: Publically campaigned for inquiry

The police investigation will be carried out at the same time as the full public inquiry, ordered by Health Secretary Frank Dobson.

Mr Dobson launched the inquiry after the GMC's findings but has since become embroiled in a row with surgeons after saying the professional body should have struck off the third doctor.

GMC needs more power

A long-serving lay member of the GMC has meanwhile called for it to be given "more extensive powers".

Frank Dobson: Calls for more powers to GMC

Former Liberal Democrat MP and health spokesman Alex Carlile, a GMC member for nine years, said Mr Dobson had been wrong to suggest the body should have struck off all three doctors.

But he added: "Until Mr Dobson, as the Health Minister, gives the GMC powers which it simply does not possess, it is not there to act as a sort of court punishing doctors.

"It is there to consider their fitness to be registered as doctors and nothing else."