NOBODY emerges from what should be the final chapter in the Richard Neale saga with any credit.

The report compiled by Suzan Matthews QC spares few from blame for the series of blunders which brought the inept gynaecologist to Northallerton's Friarage Hospital and then to continue working elsewhere.

What stands out from the report is the extent to which so many highly qualified people in the medical world were prepared to turn a blind eye to Mr Neale's misdemeanors in the forlorn hope that the problem would go away. While they prevaricated, Mr Neale continued to botch surgical procedures leaving a trail of injured and distraught women behind him.

The role of the General Medical Council in all this seems particularly shameful. It's rule change which allows it to take account of the verdicts of foreign disciplinary bodies is welcome but it should not have needed such a debacle to force its hand.

The former Northallerton NHS trust takes its share of the blame. The reference written for Mr Neale and the £100,000 pay-off made in order to get rid of him might have been in the interests of patients in North Yorkshire but was shockingly irresponsible to the women he went on to treat. The contract of employment the trust had inherited from the former regional health authority did not help its managers in that terrible decision.

There's an entirely new management structure at the Friarage Hospital today. It is to be hoped this sad saga can now be laid to rest and the hospital's otherwise excellent reputation be fully restored.