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

The 49-year-old woman had been admitted to Bishop Auckland Hospital, County Durham, 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.

And despite being asked to stop he carried on with the operation.

Heather Norton, for the GMC, said: "The doctor could have interrupted the procedure or abandoned it but he continued, despite being asked to stop."

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

During this time, Miss Norton claimed:

l A woman who needed surgery on her toes received the wrong operation;

l A patient's broken leg was repaired so poorly that the bone would not set;

l The doctor made an incision in the wrong part of a patient's shoulder. Earlier, he had marked the wrong shoulder altogether prior to surgery.

l 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.

Miss Norton said: "This case demonstrates an unsatisfactory standard of care and failings on a personal and clinical level."

Dr Senchaudhuri later worked in the same position for the United Bristol Health Care Trust in 1998, where he again made a string of appalling errors, it is alleged.

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

The hearing continues.