A patient of a consultant accused of poor professional performance has been told at a medical inquiry that her ovaries were not removed during a hysterectomy.

A Medical Council Fitness to Practise Inquiry is examining the conduct of Dr Peter Van Geene at Aut Even Private Hospital, Kilkenny.

The inquiry relates to four women who had hysterectomies carried out between 2009 and 2011, with a number of them having serious complications, requiring further surgery.

Patient C said she asked Dr Van Geene two months after her hysterectomy whether her ovaries had been removed, but he did not know as he did not have his notes present.

Dr Van Geene's counsel told the woman, who is in her 60s - almost four years after the surgery - that they were not removed, and apologised that she had not been told earlier.

Ms C told the inquiry she had no complaints about Dr Van Geene, and that he was very reassuring.

Earlier this morning, the inquiry heard from consultant anaesthetist John Cudmore, who assisted Dr Van Geene with Ms C’s emergency surgery after her hysterectomy.

Mr Cudmore said he and Dr Van Geene had not spoken before or after that surgery, as would normally be the case. He also said he felt nobody took the lead on Ms C’s treatment after the hysterectomy, when she developed a post-operative bleed.

Mr Cudmore also told the committee that he had reported to the theatre manager the fact that two hysterectomies had resulted in post-operative haemorrhages in a short space of time.

The hearing will continue until Monday.