COMPLAINTS against disgraced former North Yorkshire psychiatrist William Kerr are to be investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC).

The GMC has told former patients that a charge will be formulated against the retired doctor on the basis of "very serious allegations" from a number of individuals. A public inquiry into the charge will also be held by the GMC's Professional Conduct Committee.

Dr Kerr, who is in his mid-70s and from the Easingwold area, near York, practised at York's Clifton Hospital. He was placed on the sex offenders' register in December 2000 after a jury decided he had indecently assaulted a former patient.

The GMC letter says that, if the allegations against Dr Kerr are proved, they would raise a question of serious professional misconduct which might raise issues about his registration and fitness to continue to practise.

The GMC rejected an application by Dr Kerr for voluntary erasure from the register, saying that, after taking into account the long period over which it was alleged that he had behaved improperly, it was in the public interest for the GMC to proceed to a public hearing.

The news coincided with a preliminary meeting in York by organisers of an independent inquiry into the way complaints against the doctor were handled by the NHS.