A doctor has been permanently erased from the UK medical register after a tribunal concluded that his conduct during an emergency bowel operation was “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.” The case has drawn attention because medical experts described the surgical error as one of the most serious they had ever encountered, raising broader questions about patient safety, accountability, and oversight within healthcare systems.
The ruling follows findings that the patient endured uncontrollable pain after the procedure and may not have survived without a second emergency operation performed by another surgeon.
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Emergency surgery that led to a devastating outcome
The case centers on Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman, an NHS locum surgeon from Egypt who was working at Royal Oldham Hospital when he carried out an emergency bowel procedure on 25 August 2020.
According to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), the surgery was performed incorrectly in a way that caused the contents of the patient’s bowel, after leaving the stomach, to be redirected back into the stomach, creating what the tribunal described as a circular “closed loop.”
The consequences were severe.
The young patient was left suffering from uncontrollable pain, and the tribunal heard that the situation could have become fatal had another surgeon not identified the problem and performed a corrective operation.
Despite concerns being raised by both the patient’s parents and fellow medical professionals following the operation, the tribunal found that Dr Rahman never considered that anything may have gone wrong surgically.
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Timeline of the case
| Date | Event |
| 1993 | Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman qualified from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. |
| 25 August 2020 | Emergency bowel operation performed at Royal Oldham Hospital. |
| July 2021 | MPTS imposed restrictions on Dr Rahman’s medical practice. |
| February 2022 | Tribunal found Dr Rahman breached those restrictions by securing a locum position at Affidea Express Care Clinic in Ireland. |
| July 2026 | Tribunal ruled his misconduct was incompatible with continued registration and erased him from the UK medical register. |
Expert witness called the procedure ‘not known to man’
One of the most striking moments during the tribunal came from the General Medical Council’s expert witness, a former consultant general and colorectal surgeon.
The expert delivered an unusually strong assessment of the procedure, telling the tribunal:
“Not known to man.” — General Medical Council expert witness
The expert also described the surgical error as:
“As bad as it gets.” — General Medical Council expert witness
According to the hearing, the operation itself was considered so fundamentally flawed that it was described as “not compatible with life.”
These comments became central to the tribunal’s assessment of the seriousness of the misconduct.
Doctor claimed he was made a ‘scapegoat’e
Dr Rahman, who qualified from Ain Shams University in Cairo in 1993, did not attend the hearing and was not legally represented.
Instead, he maintained that he had become:
“A scapegoat” after a “witch hunt.” — Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman
He disputed responsibility for what happened following the emergency operation.
However, the tribunal ultimately rejected that position after examining both the surgical findings and his conduct after the operation.
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Tribunal found further misconduct after surgery
The disciplinary case was not limited solely to the operation itself.
Following restrictions imposed on his medical practice in July 2021, the tribunal found that Dr Rahman breached those conditions by applying for and obtaining employment as a locum doctor at Affidea Express Care Clinic in Ireland in February 2022.
The MPTS considered this violation to be an “aggravating” factor in the case, alongside what it described as already “significant” failings during both the surgery and the patient’s post-operative care.
Those additional findings strengthened the tribunal’s conclusion regarding his fitness to continue practising medicine.
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What’s next after the tribunal’s ruling?
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service has now ruled that Dr Rahman’s misconduct is “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.”
As a result, he has been erased from the UK medical register, meaning he is no longer permitted to practise as a doctor in the United Kingdom.
The decision brings to a close a disciplinary process that began after the 2020 operation and later expanded to include findings that he had breached professional restrictions imposed by regulators.
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Conclusion
The tribunal’s decision marks the end of one of the most serious medical misconduct cases to come before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in recent years. At the heart of the case was an emergency bowel operation that experts said should never have occurred in the way it did, leaving a patient in severe pain and requiring life-saving corrective surgery.
Combined with findings that Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman later breached restrictions placed on his medical practice, the tribunal concluded that removal from the medical register was the appropriate outcome, bringing his ability to practise medicine in the UK to an end.
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Disclaimer
This article is based on thoroughly researched information from publicly available reports, including the BBC’s coverage of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service proceedings. It is intended for informational and news reporting purposes, and the facts presented are based on the findings and statements contained in those official reports.
Sources
Photo Credit: Stéf -b / Pexels
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