IT was disturbing enough that the hospital officials who employed disgraced surgeon Richard Neale had apparently overlooked a professional record bad enough to have made headlines throughout the land.

But the truth, it seems, is much worse. Mr Neale told the Radio Four Today programme yesterday morning that he had spelled out his failures to his new employers at the Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester.

Those failures, as if anyone should need reminding, led to the General Medical Council finally banning him from practising as a doctor because of his incompetence, which injured a long list of women patients.

Not only did he discuss the background to the GMC hearing at his job interview, but he sent the hospital a "detailed letter explaining precisely what had happened".

So what are we to make of procedures and attitudes within the NHS? A surgeon struck off in Canada gets a job at The Friarage Hospital in Northallerton. His bungling leads to misery, pain and scandal but he still receives a pay-off and a positive reference to work at another hospital in Leicester.

And then, to cap it all, the NHS turns another blind eye to find him a cosy little number in yet another British hospital.

Mr Neale insists he hopes he still has a future with the NHS, and who can blame him for thinking he has a chance with such arrogant disregard for the public being displayed?

The Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson is reported to be taking the question of whether the rules regarding struck-off doctors need tightening "very seriously".

Let us hope that he is, because the health service does not seem to have taken this sorry saga very seriously so far.

A long-awaited, independent investigation into the Richard Neale affair is forthcoming. This latest chapter, which can only add to the public's perception of a health service which closes ranks, must form part of that inquiry.

Mr Neale said during yesterday's broadcast that he is full of remorse and still has nightmares about what happened.

He is not the only one who should be sleeping uneasily.