The wide-ranging probe described by the Journal appears to target networks of traders who paid certain consultants for information, some of it derived from people like technology resellers who can offer their insights into how a particular line of products is selling.

FORBES: Massive Case May Push The Envelope Of Insider Trading

Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Prof Halligan said the cultures of "target setting and corner cutting" were set higher up in the health service.

BBC: Stafford Hospital sign