A PATIENT of North-East gynaecologist Richard Neale yesterday told how she was tricked into having a private hysterectomy when he told her there would be an 11-week wait under the NHS.

On the second day of the disciplinary hearing against Mr Neale, the General Medical Council was told she only realised that his claims were false when she consulted another gynaecologist, who told her she could have had the operation free.

Mr Neale, 52, of Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, who denies serious professional misconduct, faces 35 allegations relating to 14 women patients.

He is accused of neglecting his patients, abusing his skills and damaging the reputation of the medical profession with a catalogue of mistakes spanning 17 years.

He is also accused of two charges of falsifying his CV to win a post assessing other doctors' performances.

The hearing was told how Mr Neale's patient - known only as Mrs G - had undergone the hysterectomy at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, on June 18, 1992, and paid for it without knowing it could have been done under the NHS.

Mrs G claimed the doctor had said to her that her lower body discomfort, which had gone on for five to six months, "could go on for another 12 years and the only real answer was a hysterectomy.

She had had to take out a loan to pay for the private operation. which had still left her with continual abdomenal pain.

She admitted that she had made no complaint about the doctor conduct until she saw an expose on the BBC's Panorama programme on March 1 last year.

But she denied that she had "plucked out of the air" the figure of 11 weeks, which the doctor had allegedly forecast for an NHS operation.

The hearing continues.

l Women tell of their pain - Page 7