Speaking in general terms, he told the inquest that breast surgeons aimed to remove all breast tissue when carrying out mastectomies, but in practice this was never 100% successful.
He said it was possible in some patients to leave thicker flaps, but that did not mean leaving breast tissue behind.
The inquest heard another surgeon, Andrew Stockdale, had raised concerns about the amount of residual tissue left behind in mastectomy operations carried out at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, where both worked.
Paterson said he was aware his colleague had been collecting evidence of this, but that the matter had not been raised within multi-disciplinary team meetings, which brought together NHS colleagues to discuss a patient’s treatment.
Paterson also spoke about a delay in getting biopsy results for Ms Turbill, which he said was because of a shortage of trained staff and staff-leave.
One of his colleagues, radiologist Dr Chris Fletcher, told the inquest on Wednesday that the breast surgeon was a “nightmare” to work with and that multi-disciplinary meetings were “always difficult” because Paterson “always tried to run the show”.
The inquest continues.