A LEADING member of the General Medical Council (GMC) quashed a complaint against Richard Neale without disclosing that he knew the disgraced surgeon and had provided a job reference for him, it was claimed last night.

Professor James Drife, a former vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, allegedly rejected the complaint while acting for the GMC as a medical screener - a job that entails deciding if a complaint is worthy of investigation.

Now the GMC is to investigate the allegation that Prof Drife decided the complaint should not go ahead, and failed to say he had provided two job references for the surgeon.

Richard Neale of Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, was later struck off for a string of botched operations that left women in agonising pain and, in some cases, unable to have children.

In July 2000, 34 out of 35 specimen allegations of serious professional misconduct against Neale were proved to the GMC.

The Northern Echo exclusively revealed yesterday how the professor is to appear before a GMC fitness to practice hearing, in Manchester, next Monday.

All patient complaints to the GMC are considered first by a case manager, who will decide if the complaint should be subject to fitness to practise procedures.

If it is considered serious, the complaint will be referred to a medical screener who will also examine it and decide if there are any fitness to practice issues to answer.

If a medical screener decides that the case should be closed, a lay screener will examine the papers before a final decision is made.

The GMC confirmed that the first allegation is that Prof Drife, while he was professor of gynaecology and obstetrics at Leeds University and a medical screener of complaints against doctors on behalf of the GMC, provided a verbal reference for Mr Neale, to Leicester Royal Infirmary in 1995, and a written reference to St Mary's Hospital on the Isle of Wight in 1996.

Both references helped Neale to obtain temporary locum posts.

It is alleged that, in those references, Prof Drife made no mention of being aware that Neale had been cautioned by police in 1991 for soliciting in a Richmond public toilet.

The second allegation is that, in April 2000, while acting as a GMC medical screener, Prof Drife handled a complaint against Neale and decided the case should not proceed.

In making this decision, it is alleged that Prof Drife did not bring to the attention of the GMC that he had previous knowledge of, and acquaintance of, Neale.

Because of these circumstances it is alleged that, as a medical screener, he "acted in a way that was inappropriate, had the potential of compromising the fairness and transparency of the GMC's conduct and procedures, and was likely to bring the medical professor into disrepute".

Graham Maloney, long-serving advisor to the patient group set up by the victims of Richard Neale, said it was time to replace self-regulation of doctors with a new independent body.

"The GMC seems like a lottery for patients who complain against doctors. I sometimes think we are no further forward than we were in 2000 when Neale was struck off."

Hundreds of women from North Yorkshire and further afield complained about Neale during the 15 years he spent at the Friarage Hospital.