A PROFESSOR who gave a "potentially misleading" reference for disgraced surgeon Richard Neale is to appear before the General Medical Council (GMC).

Professor James Drife, from the University of Leeds medical school, will face a week-long fitness to practice hearing on November 28 in Manchester.

Prof Drife is a distinguished obstetrician and gynaecologist who knew Neale for a number of years when the struck-off surgeon worked as a consultant at the Friarage hospital, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

The GMC has refused to comment on why Prof Drife has been ordered to attend the hearing.

Neale, of Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, was struck off the medical register in July 2000 after 34 out of 35 specimen allegations of serious professional misconduct were proved to the GMC.

Inquiries into Neal, the former head of obstetrics and gynaecology, have focused on the deaths of three former patients and assault and deception.

The Northern Echo has learned that, in April 1996, Prof Drife wrote a reference for Neale after he had left the Friarage and the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

The reference was for a post Neale had applied for at St Mary's Hospital, on the Isle of Wight, where he was formally appointed in 1996.

An independent report, handed to the Department of Health, concluded that Prof Drife's reference was "potentially misleading" and "presented a more favourable picture of Neale's reputation than was justified".

It revealed Prof Drife gave the reference despite having no direct experience of the former surgeon's clinical practice.

Read more about the Richard Neale scandal here.