I refer to your recent articles about surgeon Henk Giele.

What is the General Medical Council thinking about?

Certainly not about the well being of their patients.

I cannot understand the GMC's decision to strike off one of this country's top surgeons, purely on the basis of one woman's evidence, especially when one regularly reads in the media of incompetent, fraudulent and drug abusing doctors who are often not even severely reprimanded.

These are the doctors the GMC should be concentrating their energies on, not talented surgeons like Mr Giele.

Over the last seven years, I have had four unsuccessful operations to repair muscle detachment, and was resigned that my leg would never function properly.

However, it was suggested by the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford that I should travel from my home in South Wales to consult Mr Giele.

As a result, he operated on me to repair the damage. Eighteen months later, that operation has proved totally successful.

I have also known that if the problem recurs, I could always contact Mr Giele whose judgement and expertise I fully trust. I have now been denied this security.

The GMC obviously fails to understand that for patients such as myself who have long-term medical problems, surgeons of the calibre of Mr Giele are a source of hope, even a lifeline, and are certainly not a threat to their patients.

At the time of the alleged affair, Mr Giele was a single man.

The GMC has made a grave mistake and I hope that it is wise enough to realise it and reconsider its verdict.

CATHERINE RUSSELL, Monmouth