A SURGEON pressed on with an operation - even though his patient was still conscious and screaming in pain, a General Medical Council hearing was told.

The 49-year-old woman had been admitted to Bishop Auckland Hospital for treatment on a spine injury.

The operation was to be carried out by Dr Nalini Senchaudhuri under a local anaesthetic.

But the professional conduct committee of the GMC, sitting in London, heard how Dr Senchaudhuri did not allow sufficient time for the anaesthetic to work.

The complaints involve a period between 1994 and 1998 when Dr Senchaudhuri worked as a locum consultant at Bishop Auckland.

Heather Norton, for the GMC, claimed during this time, a woman who needed surgery on her toes received the wrong operation; a patient's broken leg was repaired so poorly that the bone would not set; the doctor made an incision in the wrong part of a patient's shoulder after previously marking the wrong shoulder altogether prior to surgery; and in another operation, he had to get a junior colleague to help him after a five-minute procedure took him more than an hour.

Dr Senchaudhuri, of Du Cane Court, Balham High Road, south-west London, denies serious professional misconduct.

The hearing continues.