Posted on 06/20/2026 9:32:40 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
An 'exhausted' NHS consultant died of drug and alcohol overdose in a hospital on-call room after his ninth 13-hour night shift in a row, an inquest has heard.
Dr Naeem Ahmed was discovered slumped in a chair at Poole Hospital, Dorset, with two syringes and a half-empty bottle of Jameson whiskey nearby.
During his final night shift, on June 21 2025, the 50-year-old consultant's clinical decision making was 'faultless' and concerns were only raised after his shift had finished and a doctor could not find him for the handover.
The doctor, who had finished his ninth of 11 shifts in a row, was then tragically found dead after entry was forced into the anaesthetist's on-call room.
Toxicology tests later showed he had taken the strong pain medication fentanyl, although the level in his blood was said to have been low.
Alcohol was also detected but only 44mg per 100ml of blood, about half the drink drive limit.
But Dr Patrick Waugh said the combined use has the potential to exacerbate any toxicity and he believed that was Dr Ahmed's cause of death.
Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin concluded today that Dr Ahmed died as a result of misadventure.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.com ...
Soon to come to USA.
I guess he didn’t stay busy enough.
When we went on alert in the Air Force, we’d work 12 on/ 12 off. This was usually just for a few days, but some of guys had been stationed in SE Asia, and I think they did it for a year.
When I worked in the prison system, I used to do 16 hours shifts regularly, working overtime or swapping days off with other people to hook up vacations. I always tried to get as many of the days I owed them out of the way before the vacation started, so I didn't have them facing me when I got back.
When I became a Seargeant, I used to swap days off with another Sergeant every week. We both had weekends off, so we'd swap to get four days off in a row. We worked 40 hours in 2 1/2 days, each week.
We still have them. They are in every neighborhood. I have used them many times. There is a problem with them however. They want to be paid. No pay, not treatment. So the dead beats all fill up the hospital emergency rooms so taxpayers can pay.
There is no such thing as “free care”. Never was, never will be.
Thank you for your service by the way. My brother was an Army Vietnam vet. He was over there 1966-67.
Thanks for the overdose info. He was a dumb ass. If he drank at home, and was nipping whiskey on the job, I'm surprised no one he worked with, or even the patients smelled alcohol on his breath.
Thank you for saying so, FRiend. I always keep a place in my heart for those who served over there.
People are flawed, people make mistakes, but…to get my sympathy, they need to own their mistakes.
There was a case recently of some woman on a cruise line who had both of her legs cut off because she was on an excursion from the cruise ship, got drunk, high, and fell off the boat, and her legs got mangled by the prop.
This is never a good thing, but she is suing the cruise line for serving her too much booze and weed. ( yes, I was surprised to hear they serve weed too)
Where is her personal responsibility in this?
Much the same here.
I worked in healthcare for a while. My wife is a 20 year employee of a group of hospitals (non clinical.)
The nature of the clients has changed so much in the past twenty years its nuts. More than 80% of the payments to her system come from government programs: medicare, Medicaid, the VA, etc. For a large majority of the patients, that is the ONLY payment the hospital gets. The bad debt for one the urban hospitals she works at approached half a billion dollars over 10 years. Yes, that is billion with a “b.”
For those who do not think we have a “single payer” system in the US, I have news for you. We have that system...it just sucks. And it’s not getting any better.
if you think “boomer hate” is bad today, wait until they absolutely destroy the long term care functionality of this country. I would not want to be a 40-something with two kids facing down the mess that our system is going to be in 15 years.
We were always taught to own up to our mistakes, and take responsibility. We were also told, before we did something that was questionable, to stop and think what could possibly go wrong, or what the repercussions could be. Needless to say, I was never a risk taker. Some people today want to be seen as a victim, despite the fact that it was their own personal actions that put them in that position.
People can do that. I agree. In the old days,docs in training would do 36 hour straight coverage(no official sleep breaks) to get them used to real life scenarios.
The doc students rebelled and that requirement was phased out.
Big question, do you want a rested doc to see your kid at 4am, or someone who is just finishing 9 13 hour shifts?...
I would like to see docs trained on 24 hour straight shifts with backup between 18-24 hours.
Supposedly perceptual distortions and hallucination can start in as little as 24 hours without sleep.
Look up traffic accident incidence rates with 4 hour sleep.
Best wishes, and “damn, you are tough” to all the non soyboys getting the job done without much sleep and living to talk about it. The ones who don’t make it can’t tell you their previous sleep history.
Take a look at FAA pilot rest requirements. I don’t see any remarks that suggest that pilots who need the suggested rest are soyboys.
Yeah, that was a very sensitive take on someone working a few extra hours on their shifts.
I once pulled 38 consecutive 12 hour shifts as a FEMA contractor for debris removal. I quit.
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