THE inquiry into the way the NHS handled complaints against two disgraced North Yorkshire psychiatrists has finally been completed.

Now a report looks set to be submitted to the Health Secretary by next summer - at about the time one of the former consultants, Michael Haslam, is expected to be freed from prison.

The inquiry was ordered by the then Health Secretary Alan Milburn in 2001 after William Kerr, of Easingwold, had been found by a jury at a hearing-of-fact to have indecently assaulted a former patient.

It was intended to examine how the health service had responded when complaints were made against Kerr and his colleague Haslam, of Crayke, near Easingwold.

The inquiry was delayed after Haslam was arrested on suspicion of assaulting former patients. He was convicted last year and is currently serving a three-year sentence for indecently assaulting three women patients in the 1980s. Oral hearings took place through the summer at York's Hilton Hotel with Haslam, accompanied by prison officers, attending on one day to give evidence and answer questions from counsel.

Other witnesses included former York psychiatrist and York NHS Trust chief executive Peter Kennedy and Britain's Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, who compiled a report on Haslam's activities in 1997, when he was regional director of the NHS.

After the hearings had finished, a number of seminars about issues raised during the hearing were held in York and London, with the final one staged in the capital last week.

The hearings and seminars were held behind closed doors, but the inquiry report is to be published in full.

An inquiry spokesman said it was hoped it would be submitted to the Secretary of State by next summer.

Kathy Haq, one of the former patients who took part in the inquiry, said she believed it had been well-organised, and had asked searching questions.

Updated: 10:03 Wednesday, December 22, 2004