Richard Neale's "personal modification" of a tricky operation left Mrs F with a lifetime of pain and potential embarrassment, the hearing was told.

The woman, now 54, claimed that after Mr Neale had operated on her to cure her stress incontinence in September 1991, she felt increasing discomfort and pain.

"If I was laid down or stood up, it felt better than when I sat, but then it was like cheesewire was cutting inside me," she said. "It was uncomfortable all the time but sometimes it was a lot worse than others."

Eventually, when the pain became unbearable and she started leaking blood from her vagina, she went back to see Mr. Neale on November 1, 1991.

"He examined me and said the operation would have to stand and that the loss of blood was probably due to my age.'

Despite seeing Mr Neale on at least four occasions during the next two months - and being given antibiotics for a bladder infection - her condition worsened and she developed a large swelling "the size of a tennis ball" on her left groin and was in constant pain over that Christmas and the New Year, Mrs F said.

She went to the local Well Woman clinic, which recommended she should tell her local Northallerton GP, Dr Elizabeth Curry, about her ongoing problem.

When she went to see Mr. Neale again in early 1992, he was "not very pleasant and was rather curt when he heard that Dr Curry had been made aware of my problems". He told her she would need a further operation which, she understood, was intended to repair a hole in her bladder, which he performed on January 16, 1992.

After the operation in Scorton, which involved removal of stitches and other complex procedures, Mrs F said she suffered increasing discomfort.

Mr Neale admitted that his efforts to help her had gone "drastically wrong. He even drew a sketch to say how he had tried remove the suture."

She discussed matters with her husband and they decided to seek specialist help from a Dr Ray Worrall in Manchester, resulting in surgery which left her in hospital for 25 days.

On her discharge, she was told, "There will be good days and bad days."

Mrs F, who was told by the committee chairman, Professor Kenneth Hobbs, that she could take a break any time she wanted to because of her continuing incontinence problems, said that she had never been told that the doctor was carrying out his own version of a procedure for her incontinence, nor given any counselling before the operation.

Asked by council barrister Vivian Robinson QC, what her current state of health was, Mrs F replied: "I have gone through various stages since the operation.

"I always wear trousers nowadays and incontinence pads and I have not a lot of control over my pelvic muscles.