CAMPAIGNERS have reacted furiously to news that a suspended consultant is unlikely to face prosecution.

Earlier this year, consultant gynaecologist Neil Hebblethwaite was interviewed by North Yorkshire Police in connection with allegations made by one of his former patients.

Now health campaigners say the police have informed them that the Crown Prosecution Service has decided that prosecution is "not in the public interest".

Graham Maloney, a campaigner for patients' rights who approached the police on behalf of Mr Hebblethwaite's former patient, said he planned to lodge a complaint.

Mr Hebblethwaite was reinstated by Northallerton Health Services NHS Trust, North Yorkshire, in April, but the surgeon remains suspended pending a General Medical Council hearing into the allegations.

The lack of action by the Crown Prosecution Service follows a decision last month not to prosecute disgraced gynaecologist Richard Neale, a former colleague of Mr Hebblethwaite.

Victims of Mr Neale, who was struck off after botching a series of operations and lying to patients, are so angry about the decision that they are considering the possibility of a private prosecution against the former Friarage Hospital consultant.

The allegations made against Mr Hebblethwaite were partly to blame for the surgeon's dismissal from the Northallerton Health Service NHS Trust a year ago.

At the time, trust bosses at the Friarage Hospital said they had no alternative but to dismiss Mr Hebblethwaite after he admitted a number of irregularities, including having an affair with a woman patient.

Despite being reinstated to his job after a successful appeal in April, the surgeon remains suspended until a GMC disciplinary hearing.

In July, Mr Maloney, who lives near Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, went to Northallerton police station and asked detectives to investigate Mr Hebblethwaite's conduct.

Mr Maloney, who is also the spokesman for victims of Mr Neale, made a formal complaint about Mr Hebblethwaite at that time.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "We have been notified by the CPS that no action is to be taken against a Northallerton man."