MEDICAL chiefs have revealed that the loophole which allowed disgraced surgeon Richard Neale to operate in the UK despite being struck off in Canada is to be closed next year.

General Medical Council (GMC) officials have also suggested that it is highly unlikely that the North Yorkshire surgeon will ever be reinstated as a doctor.

The gynaecologist managed to hang on to his job at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, despite being struck off in Canada after the death of a patient.

Former patients who campaigned to get Mr Neale removed from the medical register could not understand how a surgeon banned in Canada could be allowed to operate on British women.

Under legislation due to be introduced early next year, the GMC will be able to suspend doctors on the basis of a finding by an overseas authority.

Had this been in force in 1986, it is likely that Mr Neale's career may have been halted.

Instead, he went on to botch a string of operations, attracting hundreds of complaints from patients during a 15-year career.

Eventually he was struck off after the GMC found 34 out of 35 sample allegations of serious professional misconduct proven.

The former Yorkshire Regional Health Authority claims that it passed on information about the Canadian ban to the GMC in 1986. In the same year, a Canadian doctor warned the GMC about Mr Neale.

Paul Buckley, head of the GMC's fitness to practise department, said: "There has been a change in the law which will come into force next year. That change will enable us to act on the basis of a finding of another professional body, such as an overseas registration body."

Mr Buckley said the case of Mr Neale had highlighted the need to improve communication with overseas medical bodies.

"I think this change was certainly prompted in part by Mr Neale," he added.

But the GMC will not be obliged to accept an overseas ruling in every case.

Mr Buckley said: "It will be discretionary. We all know there are parts of the world where individuals suffer unfair punishment, so it would not be completely automatic."

Mr Buckley said GMC chief executive Finlay Scott was leading an international working group to consider the best way to ensure that information about struck-off doctors was shared worldwide.

The law change is part of a wider programme of reforms designed to "make the whole thing simpler, easier to understand and faster in protecting patients", he said.

* An independent inquiry into how the NHS handled complaints against Mr Neale is taking evidence at York.