Surgeon sent home in 'jungle bunny' race row

John Riddington Young, 58, was sent home on full pay pending a disciplinary investigation into the alleged "racist" incident.

A nurse is understood to have complained about the consultant's comments during his daily rounds at the North Devon Hospital in Barnstaple.

But patients have condemned the suspension as a waste of valuable resources.

John Fowler, a patient and friend of Mr Riddington Young, ridiculed the idea that he would use racist language and said he merely had a "lively" sense of humour.

Mr Riddington Young, an ear, nose and throat specialist and a colonel with the Territorial Army, was suspended two weeks ago.

When news of the affair became public, he was allowed to return to work while the investigation continues.

He will be supervised and may be prevented from working with the member of staff who complained.

"The decision to suspend was taken following a serious complaint, which is now being investigated as quickly as possible," said a spokesman for the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust.

"The suspension has been lifted allowing the consultant back to work on a conditional basis, enabling the investigation to continue while he sees patients at the hospital."

The spokesman denied the resumption of his work routine was in response to unwanted publicity.

Mr Fowler said he was shocked by the suspension. He said: "In all the years I have known him I have never known him make a racist remark. He has a lively and likeable sense of humour which is appreciated by patients and nurses alike.

"It is absolute madness to suspend him. He is a dignified and important man and they treated him like a naughty schoolboy."

Mr Riddington Young, who lives near Bideford, said he had been advised not to comment on the incident.

It is not his first dispute with the hospital. In the 1980s he refused to carry out tonsil operations on young patients for four years after managers insisted the patients should receive post-operative care in paediatricwards rather than on his ENT wards where he wanted them to remain.

Considered by fellow doctors to be something of an eccentric, he has published a treatise on medicine in English poetry, and uses slides of old masters while teaching students.

He has also written a book about the inns and taverns of old Norwich, a history of his local church and a medical book entitled Offbeat Otolaryngology, the official name for the ENT specialism.

His interests are listed on a medical website as: "Ferret breeder, woodcarver, arable farmer and Punch and Judy man who grows prize-winning sweet peas". The surgeon achieved notoriety in 1997 when he was a witness in a trial in which a husband was found guilty of assaulting his wife by shouting so hard it injured her hearing.

The case was halted and restarted with a new jury after a bizarre incident in which he gave an impromptu consultation to a deaf juror in the court canteen.

The canteen incident was reported and Mr Riddington Young was summoned before Judge Jeremy Griggs who ordered a retrial in response to defence submissions that the jury may be prejudiced in favour of the surgeon's evidence.