Clare Dyer

An “exhausted” NHS consultant anaesthetist died of alcohol and drug toxicity after working nine 13 hour hospital shifts in a row, a coroner’s inquest has heard. Naeem Ahmed, 50, was found slumped in a chair in the anaesthetists’ on-call room at Poole Hospital in Dorset on 21 June 2025, next to two syringes and a half empty bottle of whisky. Entry to the room was forced after the doctor taking over when Ahmed finished his shift could not find him for the handover.

A 5 year old girl in England was left bleeding, traumatised, and screaming with pain after a physician associate (PA; now known as a physician assistant) wrongly prescribed a pessary to treat itching and vaginal discharge, an investigation by the parliamentary and health service ombudsman has found.1 Vaginal pessaries should not be used in prepubescent children, but a GP authorised the prescription on the basis of the PA's recommendation, and a pharmacy dispensed the pessary without...

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