HEALTH staff who nursed Myra Hindley through her last days and hours are being offered counselling by their bosses, it has emerged.John Parkes, chief executive at West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds, where Hindley died two weeks ago yesterday, said the Moors murderer's treatment and subsequent death had been a "challenge" for the unit.

HEALTH staff who nursed Myra Hindley through her last days and hours are being offered counselling by their bosses, it has emerged.

John Parkes, chief executive at West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds, where Hindley died two weeks ago yesterday, said the Moors murderer's treatment and subsequent death had been a "challenge" for the unit.

But, at a meeting of directors, he thanked his staff for the way they handled the case: "I was pleased by the extremely professional way in which all our staff dealt with a difficult situation – providing suitable and appropriate care for someone who was in fact dying in our hospital.

"I have circulated an e-mail to all staff thanking them for their professionalism. It's something staff should be applauded for."

He said counselling was being offered to those staff who felt they needed it. And Jan Bloomfield, director of personnel, said all staff involved in the care of Hindley had been fully debriefed.

Last week, it emerged that the hospital room where Hindley died had been stripped and redecorated to avoid it becoming a "macabre" tourist attraction.

Bosses at the hospital ordered all items not taken from the room by the police to be incinerated.

A spokesman for the hospital said: "We are being sensitive to people's feelings about Myra Hindley. We are trying to be sensitive to the people who come after her."

Hindley was cremated at the Cambridge Crematorium five days after her death.

She and her lover, Ian Brady, now 64, were jailed for life at Chester Assizes in 1966 for the murders of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans, 17.

Brady was also convicted of murdering 12-year-old John Kilbride, while Hindley was found to have been an accessory to that killing. In 1987 the pair confessed to killing 12-year-old Keith Bennett - whose body has never been found – and Pauline Reade, 16.

An inquest into Hindley's death revealed she died from bronchial pneumonia caused by high blood pressure and damage to her coronary arteries.