A North-East family doctor accused of terrorising surgery staff was also blamed for a patient having to have her leg amputated, a medical tribunal heard yesterday.

A General Medical Council hearing in Manchester was told that a female patient of Dr Ashok Bhagat lost her right leg due to deep vein thrombosis after her admission to hospital had been unnecessarily delayed by him.

Dr Bhagat, 52, who was jailed for nine months in 2000 after he and a pharmacist defrauded Durham Health Authority of £6,000, denies serious professional misconduct over a string of incidents between 1995 and 1999.

Members of his staff at his surgery in Shildon, County Durham, complained he had massive temper tantrums, made smutty remarks to a female receptionist and offered her £50 a session for after-surgery sex. She refused.

Paul Lawton, counsel for the GMC, said the series of events involving the patient - known only as Mrs Morris - began on July 6, 1997, when Dr Bhagat visited her at her home and examined her right leg.

During the consultation, Dr Bhagat advised Mrs Morris that she should be admitted to hospital. But he decided she could wait two hours before admission.

Mr Lawton said the GP later failed to record in Mrs Morris's GP notes any adequate justification for his decision to delay her admission into hospital.

"She had deep vein thrombosis and the decision to delay admission to hospital resulted in the amputation of her leg," he added.

The tribunal was told earlier how his practice manager feared physical violence at the hands of the doctor.

She said that during one outburst, Dr Bhagat threw a chair and a glass of water at her. She eventually resigned in 1996.

Dr Bhagat, of Eastfields Road, School Aycliffe, near Newton Aycliffe, ran three surgeries in County Durham. He is unrepresented and did not attend the hearing, which continues.