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He called on the government to make "urgent amendments" to the Medical Act to close the loophole.

He said: "There is a systemic failure in the disciplinary process that applies to doctors which gives insufficient weight to patients and their families. Voluntary erasure enables GPs to play for time, delay disciplinary hearings and then to walk away before they have concluded.

"There is a culture of secrecy because names are routinely not made public. In other cases, where doctors have been named, they are able to call a halt to their own disciplinary case.

"It is a double tragedy for families. The tragedy of clinical incompetence is compounded by a failure of the disciplinary process. There is a wider point as the failure to reach a conclusion in these cases means nothing is proven, and therefore the wider lessons to be learnt are not being highlighted."

Rob Jones, an obstetrician who delivered David Cameron's daughter Florence, was allowed to stand down despite a 'surgical incident' and amid concerns he may have failed to spot cancerous tumours in patients.

Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat, the consultant paediatrician who failed to diagnose Baby P's broken back, was also granted voluntary erasure on health grounds.

Erasure is granted if doctors are in the later stages of their careers, if there is a strong likelihood they would not return to practice in the UK or elsewhere and if it is in the interests of patient safety to remove them from the register.

They can no longer practice in the UK, and the GMC also alerts other authorities throughout the world.

In many cases, though, the GMC rules that it is in the public interest for doctors to appear before panels.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the General Medical Council, said: "Let us be clear a doctor who takes voluntary erasure while under our procedures cannot practise medicine in the UK.

"There is no better way to protect the public than stopping them from practising as a doctor. If at any time they then tried to get back on the register the case against them would become active again and where there are serious concerns realistically it is highly unlikely they could ever practise again.

"However we have called for a further reform in this area. Where doctors want to leave the register while under investigation we would like to have power to give them the equivalent of a 'dishonourable discharge' – where they accept they were facing serious allegations, they want to leave and we want them to go.

"Unfortunately this reform like many others is currently stuck in a legislative logjam – we very much hope it will be taken up by the government in power after the next election."