An anaesthetist has been struck off after a patient turned blue on the operating table.

Sebastian Fernando failed to notice that a patient’s oxygen mask had slipped during an operation at Worthing Hospital.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found that during the operation on a lady in April 2013, Fernando failed to keep her airways clear, did not properly correct the misplaced mask, failed to properly record the patient’s oxygen levels dropping as she turned blue and failed to properly report the incident afterwards.

Another doctor had to step in to save the patient.

The tribunal panel said Fernando “compounded his misconduct by deliberately withholding important clinical information”.

The incident happened on his first day working as a locum at Worthing Hospital.

Dr Colin Spring, clinical director of anaesthesia, critical care and theatres at the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which runs Worthing Hospital, said: “This was an isolated incident involving an anaesthetist who was working for the trust for a single day.

“At no point was the patient at risk of harm as there were other senior anaesthetists in attendance.”

The panel also heard that a 72-year-old man suffered two cardiac arrests after being administered too much anaesthetic by Fernando when he worked as a locum consultant anaesthetist at Leighton Hospital in Mid Cheshire.

The tribunal panel’s chairman David Kyle said: “The panel considers that the serious nature of Dr Fernando’s misconduct, his lack of insight and his continued denial of any wrongdoing clearly outweigh the single mitigating factor present in this case, namely the absence of any prior concerns about his practice.”

He said many aspects of Fernando’s care were “seriously deficient”, including “failure of clinical judgement, failure to make appropriate enquiries and to keep proper records, failure to choose appropriate doses of anaesthetic medication, failure to maintain a patient’s airway and, finally, his seeming inability to observe and respond to developing critical incidents for which he was responsible”.

Mr Kyle said: “In the panel’s view, Dr Fernando continued to accept any blame or responsibility for these far-reaching and obvious failings.”

He said Dr Fernando’s misconduct and breaches, failing to ensure patients were kept alive, meant his patients’ wellbeing “depended on the competence of other medical staff”.

Fernando, who was not at the hearing, will be immediately struck off but he can try to appeal the decision in the next 28 days.