Emma Simpson: "A catalogue of surgical blunders"

Among the accusations against him was an allegation that he removed a women's ovaries without her permission.

The General Medical Council, doctors' regulatory body, found the case against Rodney Ledward proven on Wednesday and said he should not be allowed to operate.

Mr Ledward, who has 33 years' medical experience, has the right to appeal.

He was suspended from South Kent Hospitals NHS Trust in January 1996 after an allegation concerning the puncturing of a patient's bladder.

He was sacked 11 months later after an internal inquiry and was denied compensation or a right of appeal.

Evidence

Mr Ledward, from Kent, denied serious professional misconduct while working at a private and NHS hospital in Kent between 1989 and 1996.

Mr Ledward was sacked from William Harvey Hospital in 1997

The hospitals are St Saviour's Bupa Hospital in Hythe and at the William Harvey NHS Hospital in Ashford.

The GMC found there was evidence to support a range of charges, including failure to carry out proper pre-operative care and to delegate difficult and serious operations to junior doctors.

Due to publicity over the case, other patients have come forward with claims concerning operations by Mr Ledward.

Ovaries

The woman whose ovaries were removed has already received an out-of-court settlement.

She said that a month before the operation to remove her ovaries she was told they were "perfectly healthy".

She said she had not agreed to their removal.

The operation was performed so badly that two litres of blood had to be removed from her stomach and abdomen, the hearing was told.

The woman said she remembered regaining consciousness in the middle of the operation to find a doctor pumping blood from her stomach.