THE Government's chief medical officer is to give evidence at the Richard Neale inquiry.
Lawyers representing the inquiry panel have asked Professor Sir Liam Donaldson to attend the inquiry in York.
Sir Liam, who held a senior hea*th authority post in the region in the mid-Nineties, has already submitted written evidence.
Secretary for the inquiry Colin Phillips said: "He is not coming as the chief medical officer, he is coming as one of the key people in the background to what went on."
The inquiry, which got under way on May 1, has been asked to look at how the NHS handled the huge number of complaints made against Mr Neale, which culminated in the gynaecologist being struck off by the General Medical Council in 2000.
Sir Liam was general manager of the former Northern and Yorkshire regional health authority in 1995 when managers at the Friarage agreed to pay Mr Neale £100,000, buy his private consulting rooms for £57,000 and give him a reference to persuade him to leave.
The Department of Health said Sir Liam was never in a position of accountability for Mr Neale.
Read more about the Richard Neale scandal here.
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