{"id":749667,"date":"2026-06-20T14:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/749667\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T14:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:46:11","slug":"exhausted-nhs-consultant-died-after-ninth-13-hour-shift-in-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/749667\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Exhausted\u2019 NHS consultant died after ninth 13-hour shift in row"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toxicology tests later showed that he had taken the strong pain medication fentanyl<\/a>, although the level in his blood was said to be low. Alcohol was also detected, but only 44mg per 100ml of blood \u2013 about half the drink-drive limit.<\/p>\n

Dr Patrick Waugh, a pathologist and toxicologist, told the inquest that combining drugs and alcohol has the potential to exacerbate their toxicity, and that he believed they caused Dr Ahmed\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

But he said he could not be sure of the extent to which fatigue contributed to the impact of the drugs and alcohol on Dr Ahmed\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

Dr Ahmed\u2019s wife said: \u201cFamily and friends, most of whom are doctors, have no doubt those doses would not have killed him had he not been exhausted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been uncomfortable about the extra work undertaken by some doctors, both through private practice and working extra duties in the NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Adamant it suited him\u2019<\/p>\n

The inquest heard that an independent review carried out by the hospital trust discovered that Dr Ahmed had been working for a private practice before starting his night shift with the NHS on the day of his death.<\/p>\n

The NHS trust that employed him expects doctors to notify them of secondary employment, but does not require them to declare the hours spent on other work.<\/p>\n

And the inquest was told that Dr Ahmed\u2019s clinical decision making on his final night was \u201cfaultless\u201d, and his record \u201cblemish-free\u201d.<\/p>\n

His wife, to whom he had been married for 23 years, described him as kind, patient and fit and healthy. He had climbed Kilimanjaro<\/a> with his son, one of his three children, in July 2024.<\/p>\n

She said she did not believe her husband intended to take his life, and that the blood results showed his death to be accidental.<\/p>\n

The inquest in Bournemouth heard that Dr Ahmed was originally from Pakistan<\/a> and that he had undergone registrar training in Oxford and at a pain fellowship in London.<\/p>\n

At the time of his death he maintained a private practice along with a flexible employment pattern at the hospital which involved doing a lot of \u201cchallenging\u201d work \u2013 mainly night shifts, long weekends and trauma lists.<\/p>\n

This allowed him to travel to Pakistan several times a year to help his elderly parents, but his wife said the work pattern was \u201cdefinitely starting to get to him\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Griffin said she was satisfied Dr Ahmed did not intend to take his own life and recorded a conclusion of misadventure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toxicology tests later showed that he had taken the strong pain medication fentanyl, although the level in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[92970,49,48,84,392,9842,44,251599,268140,2225,11143],"class_list":["post-749667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-anaesthesia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospitals","tag-news","tag-nhs-national-health-service","tag-poole","tag-standard","tag-uk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}