VICTIMS of disgraced North-East surgeon Richard Neale will tell their stories to radio listeners today as the heat is turned up on the General Medical Council (GMC).

The consumer programme, You And Yours, is planning to broadcast an hour-long documentary about the GMC on Radio Four today.

The story of how former patients of Mr Neale banded together to get him struck off will form part of the programme.

Victims of the former Friarage Hospital surgeon, who was struck off this summer after botching a string of operations, hope the documentary will put further pressure on the Department of Health to hold a major inquiry into the Neale scandal.

GMC president Sir Donald Irvine is due to take part in a phone-in.

The GMC has been bitterly criticised by victims of Mr Neale for failing to take action against the former Northallerton surgeon, who managed to work in UK hospitals for more than ten years despite being struck off by Canadian medical authorities following the death of a patient.

Despite being tipped off by a Canadian GP, the GMC took no action against Mr Neale until late last year, when he was suspended pending a hearing.

Sheila Wright-Hogeland from near Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, who chairs the support group, was interviewed for the programme and called for changes in the adversarial nature of GMC hearings.

Graham Maloney, a health campaigner from Yarm who became a spokesman for the patient group, said: "There is no doubt that this programme will help us in our campaign for an inquiry into why this man was allowed to do so much damage before he was stopped.