Coroner to investigate deaths at Sydney hospitals, as two doctors are suspended

An escalating political row about conditions at two Sydney hospitals has seen the deaths of 19 patients referred to the New South Wales coroner after the state government sacked the head of its own Health Care Complaints Commission.

Two doctors have been suspended and nine more referred to the state's medical board, which has powers to discipline and reregister, amid fears among colleagues that they could be made scapegoats.

The crisis at the Camden and Campbelltown hospitals in Sydney's sprawling southwestern suburbs only came to light because of the persistence of seven whistleblower nurses who complained about the …