A medical technician who fitted an artificial left foot to a patient's right leg has agreed to give up his career before he could be struck off.

Malcolm Griffiths volunteered to be removed from his profession's register after admitting a catalogue of blunders during his time at Edinburgh's Astley Ainsley Hospital. 

The prosthetist, who was employed at the hospital's "Smart" centre, failed to notice he had left his patient with two left feet at two subsequent check-ups.

Mr Griffiths faced a disciplinary hearing in the capital on Thursday relating to complaints and claims involving a total of eleven patients.

The "notice of allegations" which the Conduct and Competence Committee of the Health Professions Council heard, stated that Mr Griffiths underwent competency supervision in relation to his practice from December 11 2007 until he was sacked the following year.

During that time, he "demonstrated continual poor performance in several areas of his work, failing to meet the standard expected of a qualified prosthetist",  "failed to maintain filing", "persistently failed to demonstrate adequate clinical and problem solving skills" and "persistently lost work".

The wrong foot was fitted between November 2006 and June 2007, to a client referred to as "patient A". Mr Griffiths also failed to provide adequate prosthetic care in that the socket required remaking.

With another client - "patient D" - who was referred to him between December 2006 and July 2007, he "failed to take a new cast within a reasonable time frame, causing unnecessary delay and pain".

The prosthetist also took "excessive time" to complete work for a third patient and failed to follow department protocols.

Had the Health Professions Council decided he was unfit to practice he could have been suspended or struck off. However, Mr Griffiths agreed to voluntarily resign his registration after admitting all of the allegations against him.

Alan Boyter, NHS Lothian's director of human resources and organisational development, said: "As soon as issues regarding this former member of staff's competence were raised, we set procedures in place to provide additional support and training.

"The member of staff was dismissed in September 2008 following a failure to engage in our competency supervision processes."