Inquiry 'will not be a whitewash'
28/04/2003
Barry Nelson

This week's long-awaited inquiry into the Richard Neale scandal will be neither a witchhunt nor a whitewash, but a search for the truth, according to the inquiry chairman.

Suzan Matthews QC, the senior barrister who will open the controversial private inquiry into the Neale affair on Thursday, was speaking exclusively to The Northern Echo.

The inquiry into how the NHS handled complaints about the disgraced gynaecologist is likely to sit in York for at least two months.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced the inquiry after the former surgeon at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was struck off in 2000 for botching operations, lying to patients and altering records.

A campaign group formed by more than 200 former patients has expressed outrage that the surgeon was able to work in UK hospitals, despite being struck off in Canada.

Access to the behind-closed-doors inquiry will be strictly limited, and the public and Press will be excluded.

In due course, the inquiry panel's report will be published by Health Secretary Alan Milburn.

"I would like to make it very clear that what we are doing is looking to establish the facts," said Mrs Matthews.

"We are not interested in a witchhunt, and we are certainly not interested in a whitewash. It is very much forward-looking, to apply what can be learned from these events.

"We have a straightforward job to do and I am very appreciative of the support of those who have come forward to help us to do the job," she said.

Many former patients have decided to stay away after their bid for a full public inquiry was overturned in the courts and it is unclear whether any significant new NHS witnesses have come forward.

But Mrs Matthews denied that a boycott by large numbers of former patients would make the hearings in York invalid.

"That isn't the case. I would personally like to pay tribute to those who are giving evidence and I would say to those who may have had ambivalent feelings that it is still not too late."

She said the inquiry was the only place where former patients and staff caught up in the scandal would have the opportunity to explain what happened.

Leaders of the patient support group have dismissed the inquiry as a whitewash.

To contact the inquiry helpline, call 0207-972 2400.