A TOP-level meeting with the head of the Health and Safety Executive has been secured by a man campaigning for a review in the law which, he says, allowed disgraced Northallerton surgeon Richard Neale to escape criminal prosecution.

John Bacon, a former mayor of Northallerton, has been invited to present his case to Tim Walker, director general of the HSE, in London next week.

The meeting, provisionally arranged for Wednesday, was described by Mr Bacon as a step in the right direction. He wants policy on the application of the Health and Safety at Work Act reviewed to protect hospital patients.

"This is an example that the HSE is responding to some public anxiety and disquiet," said Mr Bacon. "To be asked to a meeting like this is a step in the right direction. I believe there is an opportunity for a consensus to emerge which puts safeguards in place to protect good clinicians but where there is a process in place to pick up those very rare bad apples in the barrel.

"If we can persuade the HSE not to be afraid to apply the act in extreme circumstances, such as those involving Richard Neale, then there is a positive outcome that, hopefully, everybody could embrace and celebrate."

Mr Bacon believes that the part of the Health and Safety at Work Act which seeks to protect people while on work premises applies to patients attending hospital. He wants the HSE to take a more robust line when applying the legislation, which could result in surgeons who showed gross misconduct facing criminal charges.

Mr Neale was struck off by the General Medical Council two years ago this month after a string of botched operations between 1985 and 1995. He was appointed senior consultant at the Friarage hospital, Northallerton, in spite of having already been struck off in Canada