GYNAECOLOGIST Richard Neale lost his temper when a patient and her husband criticised him for botching her hysterectomy and leaving her with a infected wound, the General Medical Council heard yesterday.

The husband, Mr B, told the council's professional conduct committee that Mr Neale, 52, became angry when they went to his private consulting rooms in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, in 1995.

Mr Neale had performed the operation two months earlier after diagnosing the wife with recurring endometriosis - cysts on the ovary which can load to infertility.

The committee heard that Mrs B wanted to tell Mr Neale she had been in hospital for corrective surgery, after the hysterectomy had left her with an infected wound, and to inform him she had a new gynaecologist and no longer wanted him to be her consultant. She also wanted her medical notes.

Mr B said Mr Neale "became very arrogant and flustered that she had been in hospital" and stormed out of the room.

The couple found Mr Neale clutching her medical notes. He refused requests to calm down and an altercation ensued. Mr Neale then rushed out into the street.

When Mr B and his wife left, they found him standing outside, clutching the medical papers to his chest.

Three other witnesses told the committee how their bladders were damaged during operations.

Mr Neale, of The Firs, Langthorpe, Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, is charged with a catalogue of bungled operations, incompetence and negligence that left women with permanent mental and physical scars. He admits failing to perform pre or postoperative x-rays on Mrs A at the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton.

He denies misconduct over his treatment of 13 other women and a separate charge of making fraudulent claims on his CV in an application to the GMC.

The hearing continues.