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Gladys Johnson-Ogbuneke, who qualified in Nigeria, botched four operations in 2010 and 2011 while working as a locum registrar in trauma and orthopaedics at South London Healthcare NHS Trust, a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel found. One consultant, Mr B, who had previously worked with her, refused to let her operate on any of his patients, and she was assigned to work with another consultant, Mr O.

Two of Johnson-Ogbuneke’s bungled operations were hip hemiarthroplasties. In one, performed on Patient A, she was unable to remove the fractured femoral head out of the hip socket, and the operation had to be completed by Mr B. In the second, on Patient D, she did not cut the femoral neck correctly, made two other errors, and made a hole in the femur.

When carrying out a fixation by dynamic hip screw on Patient C she inserted the screw too far, into the pelvic bone, but she refused to acknowledge her errors and sought to blame others for her shortcomings, the panel said.

The ankle operation was an open reduction internal fixation on Patient E, a 20 year old man who had broken his ankle playing football. A consultant, Mr V, told the panel that he was “disturbed and shocked” by the fixation when he saw the post-operative x rays.

Mr B said that the procedure was “a spectacular failure and goes against all principles of ankle fixation.” He added that Patient A had had to undergo revision surgery because the screws that had been placed incorrectly caused cartilage damage and there was a significant risk of developing arthritis.

Another consultant, Mr W, told the panel that it was “a frightening example of orthopaedic surgery” and that the errors had been compounded by leaving the patient’s foot in the equinus position. Yet, in an email to Mr O and another consultant, Mr F, Johnson-Ogbuneke told them that she was pleased with her work and that the outcome had been a credit to her.

Mr F told the panel that Johnson-Ogbuneke did not accept that the outcome was “disastrous” for the patient. She had also claimed that Mr F supervised the procedure, which the panel found was an example of her “deliberately lying.”

Johnson-Ogbuneke moved from south London in April 2011 to a post as a locum registrar at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust. Mr O contacted a consultant there to tell him of concerns about her surgical skills and her ability to be open and honest when problems arose, and she was allowed to operate only under the supervision of a consultant or senior specialist registrar.

While working in the fracture clinic there she mishandled the cases of three patients in June and July 2011, including failing to put one on the list for urgent spinal surgery. On 27 July that year she walked out of theatre after learning that her locum contract would not be renewed from 1 August, although she was scheduled to assist with the list and a patient was already on the operating table.

In July 2013 she wrote a letter to a former colleague, a specialist registrar, accusing him of making false and malicious allegations against her to the General Medical Council and alleging that he was dangerous and that his actions could jeopardise patient safety. She admitted sending the letter to his current and former employers and to an MP.

Priya Iyer, chairing the panel, told her, “The panel recognises that all doctors make mistakes. However, most doctors who make mistakes are prepared to acknowledge and take responsibility for them.

“You appear to be totally unable to ever accept that you have made any mistakes in the cases before this panel. That fact itself presents a particular danger to patients.”