I’m stunned by the record of incompetence uncovered by the General Medical Council of Dr Nemesio Gomez-Estanconca, a locum consultant at Macclesfield District General Hospital.

Over a period of 13 days he failed to spot potential tumours, failed to investigate symptoms that could have indicated cancer, prescribed a ‘placebo’ nasal spray for a patient he hadn’t even examined, mis-diagnosed a condition that could have lead to early deafness and referred a patient for unnecessary surgery.

The GMC said Mr Gomez-Estanconca had shown ‘the most basic lack of competence’ and added that the consultant was unwilling or unable to recognise his failings and ‘despite compelling evidence to the contrary he remains of the view that his manifestly unsatisfactory care of four patients was of an acceptable standard’.

How do such incompetent doctors continue to work in the NHS?

Surely there’s a stringent screening process? Patients’ lives are at risk – these aren’t jobs where we can tolerate a catalogue of errors.

Not long ago we had a German locum causing the death of a patient in the NHS by administering a lethal dose of morphine he ‘confused’ with another drug.

Presently doctors join the medical register after completing their exams but do not undergo further checks for the rest of their careers.

The GMC proposed regular checks in June 2000, which sparked a vote of no confidence at the BMA’s annual conference.

So, while these two august bodies haggle and bicker, the only competence test for doctors in the NHS appears to be the suffering of patients. Rather like policing roads only after someone dies.

This is a scandal that must be addressed.

Patients cannot continue to act as guinea pigs for the competence of doctors.

The views on this page are Vic Barlow and not necessarily those of the Express