Letter by David Hinchliffe MP, Chair of
the Health Committee (GBI 12)
I have been reflecting on your thoughts as to
the possible advantages of select committees being consulted prior
to the setting up of independent inquiries. I thought I might
draw your attention to the inquiry currently being conducted into
the Performance and Conduct of the surgeon Richard Neale being
held in York.
It seems to me that this inquiry would greatly
have benefited from more input from the Health Committee. The
Committee had in fact taken evidence from several patients who
had suffered at Dr Neale's hands, in the course of an inquiry
conducted into adverse critical incidents in the NHS. We were
well aware of the problems caused by the role of the General Medical
Council and would have brought to the attention of the Neale inquiry
the paramount need to include the role of the GMC within its remit.
The inquiry is, in my view, much harmed by the absence of this.
May 2004
| 
