Naeem Ahmed

Following Naeem’s death the Trust, University Hospital Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD) instructed an independent review of the circumstances of his death and the processes in place within the Trust. This led to the Trust taking action to amend their practice around disposal of drugs and working patterns of doctors at the Trust. I am concerned that the practices in place at the time of Naeem’s death at Poole Hospital, which have now been changed, will be operating in other Trusts nationally.  Evidence at the Inquest revealed that at the time of Naeem’s death a process in place at Poole Hospital that if there were small volumes of medicines to be disposed of by representatives of the Trust which were less than 50ml in volume, such as after surgery had taken place, these would be squirted into the sharps bins and then the needles would also be disposed of in the sharps bin too. This was identified in the independent review which concluded that this practice posed a risk that fatal medicines could be accessed from the sharps bin. As a result, UHD now use gels in the sharps bins which immediately denature and destroy the liquids squirted into the sharps bins. I am concerned that what was happening at the time of Naeem’s death continues to happen at other Trusts across England and Wales and could lead to future deaths.  

The review and the coronial investigation also revealed that Naeem died whilst working the 9th shift in a run of 11 night shifts for UHD which began on 12th June 2025 and that in June 2025 he undertook clinical work for more than one provider on the same calendar day on different occasions, and on one occasion he undertook daytime work for an external provider before commencing a resident overnight shift for the Trust later the same day. The review also identified that trust systems for job planning, rostering, appraisal, and secondary employment operated independently and were not designed to provide an integrated  view  of  timing,  sequencing,  or  cumulative  workload  across employers, whether over short periods or across an annual cycle. Whilst UHD have undertaken work to resolve this issue, I am concerned that this practice exists at other Trusts in England and Wales and could lead to fatigue and fatal outcomes to patients and doctors.