Coroner warns of dangers of doctors having second jobs

There is a “significant risk of future deaths” among doctors who are working too much without proper checks by their employers, a coroner has warned.

The warning was issued in a recent prevention of future deaths report that focused on the death of Naeem Ahmed.

Ahmed, aged 50, was a Consultant Anaesthetist who was working at Poole Hospital, Poole at the time of his death. He began a run of 9 nights work as the anaesthetist working in the hospital overnight, and due to staff illness agreed to cover a further two night shifts. He did not attend for the handover meeting and as he had not responded to attempts to contact him, staff entered his locked room and found him collapsed and unresponsive in the room.

Ahmed was found slumped in a chair in the anaesthetists’ on-call room next to two syringes and a half empty bottle of whisky.

The report follows an inquest into Ahmed’s death in June, during which it was reported that postmortem tests had shown that he had taken fentanyl and that his alcohol level was about half the drink-drive limit.

The cause of death was combined alcohol and fentanyl toxicity, and the inquest, held in Bournemouth, ruled the death to be by “misadventure.”

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Source: BMJ, 4 September 2026