A NEW concession to private patients by the Richard Neale inquiry has failed to impress campaigners.

Yesterday, The Northern Echo exclusively reported that the group leader, Sheila Wright-Hogeland, is recommending that victims of the former Friarage Hospital surgeon should stay away from the inquiry.

Mrs Wright-Hogeland believes that the private, behind-closed-doors inquiry set by by Health Secretary Alan Milburn is a "sham, a whitewash and a cover-up".

Her main concern is that the inquiry is in private and restricted to how the NHS dealt with complaints about the North Yorkshire surgeon, between 1985 and 1997.

The group would prefer a wide-ranging public inquiry into the sequence of failures which allowed Mr Neale to work in the NHS, despite being struck off in Canada, and to carry on operating while the complaints piled up.

Mr Neale was eventually struck off in the summer of 2000 after more than 30 specimen allegations of serious professional misconduct were found proven.

Within hours of Mrs Wright-Hogeland speaking to The Northern Echo, the group leader received a 17-page faxed document from the inquiry office, including a new concession on private patients.

But Mrs Wright-Hogeland said her advice to the 250 strong group was unchanged.

"The only important concession in the document is that private patients may give evidence in a letter, but they still can't give evidence in person," said Mrs Wright-Hogeland, who was a private patient of Mr Neale but would be allowed to take part as the group leader.

She is also angry that, as things stand, the group's advisor, Graham Maloney, would be barred from giving evidence.

Inquiry officials have offered to write to Mr Milburn asking whether a special concession could be made on Mr Maloney's half, if it can be shown that he would make "a valuable and beneficial contribution to the inquiry's work".

Mrs Wright-Hogeland said this was clearly absurd because of the key role played by Mr Maloney in achieving the main objective of the group - getting Mr Neale struck off.

A spokesman for the inquiry has insisted that everyone connected with the investigation was "determined" to do a good job and uncover any lessons which the NHS can learn from the Neale scandal.

Read more about the Richard Neale scandal here.