New Cross boss is sorry that controversial heart surgeon left

Mr Wilson has been accused of fiddling surgery data and has been criticised by a coroner investigating 15 deaths. He resigned for personal reasons earlier this month.

Mr Wilson was sacked from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham after he allegedly falsified surgery results.

The General Medical Council is still investigating the claims and Mr Wilson faces the prospect of being struck off.

After leaving the QE the surgeon began working at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital on a voluntary basis.

He then took up a position on a week-by-week locum basis, but with pressure surrounding his position intensifying, he resigned last month.

Chief executive at the hospital, David Loughton, had praised Mr Wilson for his 'high quality' work.

And now the New Cross boss has expressed regret at the surgeon departing his post, but said it was the 'only thing' he could do.

Mr Loughton said: "I was sorry to see him go.

"But I do appreciate with all of the publicity and everything else, that was the only thing he could do.

"We await with interest what happens with the GMC."

Mr Wilson was severely criticised by a coroner over the deaths of three patients.

The inquest into the deaths of the three men operated on by the consultant cardiothoracic surgeon found that there were 'missed opportunities' to identify problems at an earlier stage and that the surgery had been 'more extensive than necessary'.

Mr Wilson was found by the Birmingham coroner to have deviated from accepted surgical practice during the operations on Peter Brookes, aged 72, of Halesowen; Alan Tringham, 78, of Hereford; and Alan Lucas, 77, of Solihull.

The three men were among at least 15 patients who died between September 2011 and September 2012 after being operated on by Mr Wilson at University Hospitals Birmingham Trust (UHB), which runs the QE.

At a four-day inquest into the three deaths, coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, Louise Hunt, concluded that an operation on Mr Brookes was 'more extensive then necessary' – leading to extra time in theatre and causing more harm.

Mrs Hunt said this triggered low blood pressure and a cardiac arrest which caused brain damage. Mr Brookes then suffered further cardiac arrests in intensive care following surgery.

She made identical comments in recording narrative verdicts into the deaths of Alan Tringham, who had surgery in June 2012, and Alan Lucas, whose operation was in April 2012.

UHB's internal investigation found Mr Wilson under reported the length of time that 500 patients were on bypass by a total of 329 hours or 13.7 days.

His patients were also recorded as much more likely to have other conditions, which would have made their surgery riskier and more complicated.

UHB alleged that Mr Wilson had shortened the length of time his patients were recorded as on heart-lung bypass to give the impression that his operations were going more smoothly than they were.

It was alleged that he changed information to make his results appear better than they were on a database designed to allow patients to compare the success rates of surgeons.