The opening evidence sessions have already demonstrated why the Eljamel scandal needed a judge-led public inquiry.

NHS Tayside chief executive Nicky Connor faced a bruising three hours in front of the body set up to investigate how it all went so wrong.

The Courier has been exposing the Eljamel scandal for more than a decade – uncovering both the devastating consequences for patients and the institutional failings that allowed concerns about the neurosurgeon to go unanswered.

But the most disturbing revelation was that concerns about Eljamel’s practice were raised early in his time in Tayside, which began in 1995.

The scandal is therefore no longer simply the story of a rogue medic.

It is the story of an institution that appears to have been warned yet failed to act.

Reviews to date have identified serious weaknesses in the systems put in place to supervise Eljamel and prevent further harm.

For years, NHS Tayside repeatedly told me and others that it had no concerns about Eljamel before 2013.

That account has now been badly undermined.

When we revealed that the General Medical Council had received........

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