Surgeon death toll 'could be up to 70'
06/02/2002

As many as 70 patients may have died at the hands of disgraced surgeon Richard Neale, the High Court heard yesterday.

Richard Lissack QC, representing former patients pressing for a full public inquiry into the Neale case, said the number of "wholly unnecessary deaths" caused by Neale had been put as high as 70, perhaps more".

The North Yorkshire NHS Trust, which employed the gynaecologist before he was struck off for botching a string of operations, has disclosed that 29 of his former patients died under his care during his ten-and-a-half years at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.

A two-year police investigation into the deaths of three of Neale's former patients was dropped last October.

Yesterday, the High Court heard how Health Secretary Alan Milburn's refusal to order separate full public inquiries into the activities of Richard Neale and a Kent GP struck off after being jailed for a series of indecent assaults amounted to an "irrational" breach of the victims' fundamental human rights.

Sheila Wright-Hogeland, 50, of Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, who represents some 250 women who claim to have suffered at the gynaecologist's hands, and Patricia Howard, 23, who was indecently assaulted by Clifford Ayling, are challenging Mr Milburn's ruling that the inquiries should be held behind closed doors.

Both say full public inquiries, with the Press in attendance, are vital to encourage other potential witnesses to come forward.

Mr Lissack said: "The issues are of such significance because they go to the heart of medical regulation in this country. They cross the divide between the NHS and the private sectors - a matter of current and increasing significance."

The hearing, which is expected to last four days, continues today.