Heart surgeon at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital faces competency hearing
A leading Midland cardiac surgeon who set up a groundbreaking heart and lung centre has been ordered before his professional body after failing basic surgery and competence tests.
Cardiothoracic consultant Wilfred Pugsley is facing a fitness to practice hearing at the General Medical Council (GMC) and could be banned from operating if allegations are found against him.
Mr Pugsley, who works at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital, stopped doing heart surgery at the Trust and focussed on lung operations after getting four “unexpected” outcomes in the space of two months in 2005.
The consultant, who lives in King Edward’s Wharf, Sheepcote Street, in Birmingham city centre, was also at the centre of a high profile inquest into 64-year-old grandmother Carol Lees, who died four weeks after a £25,000 private operation at Edgbaston’s Priory Hospital in February 2006.
A GMC panel is investigating whether Mr Pugsley’s professional abilities are deficient after he failed a performance assessment last year.
“In January and February 2008 Mr Pugsley underwent a GMC performance assessment,” said a GMC spokesman.
“Competence tests found that his performance was unacceptable in a test of knowledge, cardiac surgery and gave cause for concern in basic surgical skills.
“In the peer review, the assessment team found that the surgeon’s performance was unacceptable in non-military general surgery for treatment in emergencies and gave cause for concern in general surgery for assessment of a patient’s condition, providing or arranging investigations and providing or arranging treatment.
“The assessment team concluded that the standard of his professional performance was deficient in cardiac surgery and general surgery.”
