Health secretary Alan Milburn has launched an independent inquiry into organ removal at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

But at a mass meeting last week, bereaved parents whose children's organs were kept by pathologists at the Liverpool hospital demanded a full public inquiry.

The latest inquiry - due to report by the end of March - comes on top of chief medical officer Professor Liam Donaldson's investigation into removal and retention of organs across the country (news, page 6, 25 November).

Professor Donaldson is to ask every trust and health authority in England whether they hold any collections of organs and how they were obtained.

The Alder Hey collection of more than 2,000 hearts and other organs came to light at the inquiry into the Bristol Royal Infirmary babies' heart surgery case in September, which heard that at least 15,000 hearts of children and adults have been kept by nine hospitals in England.

Parents say they weren't told that their children's organs would be kept after post-mortem.

See politics, page 21.