A SURGEON accused of blunders during operations at the Royal Bolton Hospital has revealed how his troubled personal life led him to seek solace in alcohol.

Dr Julian Mason is facing allegations of irresponsible treatment of several patients -- including two who died -- at a General Medical Council hearing.

It is alleged that on three occasions he had been drinking while on call.

At the professional misconduct hearing yesterday, 38-year-old Dr Mason apologised to the Professional Conduct Committee for his "irresponsible behaviour" drinking when on call and thereby putting patients at risk.

"There are mitigating reasons for what happened, but no excuses," said Dr Mason who was employed at the Royal Bolton Hospital as an ear, nose and throat surgeon in 1998 and 1999.

Giving evidence, Dr Mason, who denies serious professional misconduct, said he had moved to Bolton from his home town of Nottingham following a divorce, leaving behind his child and his mother who was ill.

"I may have appeared to be happy and cheerful, but inside I was very miserable," he said.

"I could not come to terms with divorce and separation from my child and didn't properly come to terms with the ill health of my mother.

"In Nottingham, I could see her regularly, but in Bolton I could not do that and I was very lonely and sad."

Dr Mason, now of Newbury, Berkshire, is said to have been drinking while on call on dates in May, August and October, 1988.

"I let down my colleagues and I let the profession down," he said.

He added that since leaving the Royal Bolton Hospital he had given up surgery and was currently training as a psychiatrist, working at Fairmile Hospital.

"I have no desire to work in ENT surgery again," he said.

It is also alleged that as well as botching operations, Dr Mason failed to investigate the conditions of patients properly and to monitor them.

Dr Mason said he accepted responsibility for a laser operation which led to the death of a 43-year-old woman, but he denied trying to use laser equipment to control bleeding from around her tongue.

He said he had decided to supervise the use of the laser on the patient by junior doctor Avinash Pahade, but denied it continued to be used once bleeding was discovered around her tongue.

"We applied pressure and suction and used a gag," said Dr Mason.

The GMC also maintain that a nerve stimulator or nerve monitor should have been used during an operation Dr Mason carried out on a 70-year-old man.

The surgeon was said to have damaged the pensioner's nerves. He suffered blood loss and further complications and later died from a heart attack.

Dr Mason claimed that the consultant who taught him at University Hospital, Nottingham, had not used such nerve equipment and had maintained that operations could be carried out perfectly safely without it.

Two allegations relating to Dr Mason's use of surgical lasers and failure to use a nerve stimulator or facial nerve monitor on a patient were dropped yesterday.

He now faces 18 allegations of serious professional misconduct.

(Proceeding)