THE doctor who failed to identify cancer in 61 East Lancashire women is still receiving a salary of around £100,000 a year - despite being suspended 23 months ago.

A damning report slammed blunders Dr Glenn Anthony Kelly made as a consultant radiologist and director of East Lancashire Hospital's breast screening unit.

One woman who received just £5,000 compensation for her ordeal said she was ‘horrified’ that he was still receiving his full salary while his professional body decides his fate.

And Graham Jones, Hyndburn and Haslingden MP, said Dr Kelly was benefiting from employment law originally designed to protect the lowest paid workers.

Jack Straw, Blackburn MP, said the investigations ‘needed to be carried out far more quickly’.

East Lancashire Hospitals’ original internal investigation found that Dr Kelly had missed breast cancer in 20 patients between 2006 and 2008.

But a new report analysing his patients further back to 2000 found the true figure to be 61.

The independent inquiry found that Dr Kelly was not ‘sufficiently competent’ to perform biopsies using ultrasound, and instead relied on outdated techniques.

Six of those women have since died, two from the disease, but it is not known if their prognosis was affected by the diagnosis delays.

Dr Kelly was suspended by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust in April 2009.

But bosses at the hospital cannot consider dismissing him until a General Medical Council (GMC) investigation into his fitness to practise is completed.

Victim Letitia Newhouse, a mum-of-two from Sawley, had to undergo a mastectomy and was hospitalised during gruelling chemotherapy to treat her cancer.

She received £5,000 compensation, which she branded 'insulting', after setting aside £2,000 of personal savings to fight her case.

The 53-year-old said: “I'm horrified. You could not print my reply to how much he is being paid. It is dreadful. This has dragged on long enough.”

Mr Jones, whose Hyndburn constituency includes Accrington Victoria Hospital, where the mistakes were made, said: “He has been exposed as being incompetent and he should, if natural justice was carried out, have been gone by now.

“I think he should admit his guilt and he should end the investigation. The money involved is sickening.”

Mr Straw added: “The correct procedures need to be adhered to but what this situation shows is that the investigations need to be carried out a lot more quickly to bring an end to an unsatisfactory situation.”

An A&E nurse at Royal Blackburn Hospital, who did not wish to be named, said: “It annoys me that the chap is suspended on full pay because they are talking about making people redundant at the hospital.”

The terms of his contract, which the trust drew up in line with Department of Health guidelines, mean hospital bosses' hands are tied.

As a consultant with 18 years experience Dr Kelly is still being paid at least £94,911 a year while he is excluded from duty.

A GMC investigation has been underway since November 2009, when an Interim Orders Panel imposed 10 conditions on his registration.

It said Dr Kelly could not carry out any breast assessment work until May 2011.

A GMC spokesman said the investigations usually last around 15 months, but they may take longer.

It could yet call him before a Fitness to Practise hearing to consider whether to strike him off the register altogether, but the hospital trust can take no further action until this process is complete.

Ian Brandwood, director of human resources for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “In line with standard NHS employment guidelines, the consultant in question is currently being paid in accordance with his contact of employment while investigations continue.

“The clinician concerned has a legal and contractual right to receive payment while investigations continue, and the trust has no discretionary power over the payment received.

"We hope to bring these matters to a conclusion in the near future.”

The Department of Health said suspension with pay was a ‘neutral’ act that allowed time for an investigation to take place.

It said the trust must follow employment law and guidance produced by the department and issued to the NHS in 2005 in a Maintaining High Professional Standards document.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Guidance issued by the department states that exclusion from work is used only as an interim measure and that it is for the minimum necessary period of time.

“All trusts and strategic health authorities are independent employers in their own right.

"They have the responsibility for all employment decisions about their staff and this includes suspension.”