THE long-awaited inquiry into the Richard Neale scandal began behind closed doors last week.
Alan Milburn, Health Secretary and MP for Darlington, ordered the inquiry into how the NHS handled multiple complaints against Mr Neale.
The former Northallerton Friarage Hospital surgeon, who was found guilty by the General Medical Council of 34 of 35 sample allegations of professional misconduct, was able to work for 15 years without colleagues or managers reporting him.
Suzan Matthews QC, inquiry chairman, pledged that the inquiry, sitting in York, would be a thorough search for the truth.
But most of Mr Neale's former patients have so little faith in the inquiry, after losing court action to force a public inquiry, that they have boycotted it. The three-strong panel is expected to take evidence from witnesses for two months and its findings will be published later this year.
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