THE case of Richard Neale, the incompetent gynaecologist who was able to practise in Britain despite having been struck off in Canada after the death of two patients, exposed an alarming loophole.

It showed how easy it was for doctors to be banned from practising in one country, only for them to move abroad and cause further suffering and misery.

Following the Neale case, which ended in him being struck off by the General Medical Council, procedures have been tightened in this country to prevent such an outrage happening again within the National Health Service.

But what about discredited doctors in Britain going to other countries to continue their careers? Are the same safeguards in place?

It was a question we posed yesterday when fears were raised that Dr Syed Amjad Husain - the Darlington GP jailed for secretly filming his own sexual assaults on women patients - might practise in his native Pakistan after his release from prison.

Unless an appeal launched against the unbelievably lenient sentence imposed on Husain is successful, he will probably be free in around a year. And we discovered that there is nothing to stop him plying his trade in the country of his birth.

That's why we faxed yesterday's front page of The Northern Echo - highlighting Husain's appalling crimes - to officials at the Pakistani High Commission in London.

Grateful for the information, they in turn have alerted medical authorities in Pakistan with a view to banning Husain from relaunching his career.

Hopefully, it will make it impossible for a doctor who is guilty of the most despicable betrayal of his patients and profession, from preying on more vulnerable victims.