A surgeon sent a patient a string of text messages begging her to go out with him just days after operating on her, the General Medical Council heard yesterday.

Wasim Aftab had claimed he needed her phone number so that he could contact her with the results of a biopsy, but instead sent a series of text messages. He eventually left an "aggressive" voice message after he learned she had complained to the King George Hospital in Ilford, Essex, where he was a senior house officer.

Dr Aftab first texted the woman the day after he operated on her thigh to remove a lesion on July 18 2005.

The message read: "hi..m sory [sic] 2 contact u like dat..but I couldn't resist...m da surgeon who operated on you...how r u?" He sent another text late that night when he did not receive a reply.

The woman, known only as HF, told the GMC hearing in central London the texts were "upsetting" and made her feel "very uncomfortable, and very unhappy".

A third text, sent the next day, read: "no it wasn't mistake it was deliberate, was just trying to make conversation because I was interested..m I not clumsy straightforward? Sory to bother." The following morning he sent yet another message, saying: "I was wondering if I could invite you for a drink, coffee, dinner, whatever you like...pleeeezz...was waiting for your reply last night." Dr Aftab also left a voice message on her mobile, saying the results of her biopsy were normal, even though the tests had yet to be carried out.

When she made a formal complaint, Dr Aftab left another message on her mobile.

The patient said: "The caller didn't identify himself, he just kept apologising. He made reference to the fact that I had made a complaint and he was very sorry."

She added: "He then began to accuse me of ruining his career and was telling me how much training he had gone through to get to the position he was in. He was quite aggressive, it wasn't shouting, but it was quite aggressive."

Dr Aftab denied the phone call gave HF false and misleading information, or was dishonest. "I wanted to apologise for my actions," he said. "I realised that I had done something wrong."

Dr Aftab has admitted sending four text messages to HF's mobile between July 19 and July 21 2005 and faces being struck off if the GMC finds his fitness to practice is impaired. The hearing continues.