Midlands doctor suspended for sixth time after struggling to grasp English

18 comments

1. “So I can forgive the first 5 times but the 6th time is absolutely beyond the pale!”

2. If I’m reading that correctly she was hired by a trust despite not being able to adequately communicate in English. Concerns were first raised in ’19 but she was only suspended in ’21, so she worked in a hospital for two years despite not being able to communicate fully with patients. I wonder how many have suffered or died because of her hubris and the gross dereliction of duty by the trust.

   Also baffling that in the 5 years since she was suspended she’s been unable to learn English to any degree of fluency.

3. i had an invasive procedure and the doctor barely spoke english. she also did other things during the procedure so i contacted PALS and they basically ignored me and told me the doctor denied it so who can say what’s true ¯_(ツ)_/¯. so frustrating and i feel both myself and my bf came out of the appointment so confused about what she actually meant about anything. i asked about pilates and she said not to go swimming? they are different!

4. Why isn’t the IELTS exam required for foreign doctors? It’s not that hard, especially for someone intelligent enough to qualify as a doctor…wait, is she qualified?

5. The last time I went into hospital, for nearly 3 weeks due to covid and some of the doctors, assistants and nurses were really hard to understand.

   It’s incredibly frustrating trying to get answers to medical concerns when they can’t speak even the most basic of English.

6. Remember, the NHS prioritised these people over doctors born, raised and trained here.

   [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/02/nhs-in-england-told-to-slash-recruitment-of-overseas-trained-medics](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/02/nhs-in-england-told-to-slash-recruitment-of-overseas-trained-medics)

7. I was in crippling pain in the hospital a year or so ago. The nurses that were there to look after all of us on the ward could barely speak English at all. There were so many arguments and people writhing in pain solely because these nurses had no idea what to do and could barely speak to the patients in English. This country is a disgrace.

8. Nurses couldn’t speak any English when my dad was at the end of his life in hospital. Was supposed to have morphine every 4 hours but they just didn’t do it no matter how much he asked.
   We had to sneak his own morphine from home on and administer it ourselves. Nurses got upset that we were doing this but still didn’t give him his when they were supposed to…

   One of the same nurses left me a voicemail to tell me he had died.

9. happend to my wife – a nurse could barely communicate in English, like she clearly was not able to comprehend concerns my wife was raising, and only could give basic commands that were required during the procedure. It kinds sucks when a medical professional who is making an injection can’t communicate with you.

10. In no other country in the world would it even be remotely controversial to suggest someone (especially someone in the medical profession) should be fluent in the country’s main language.

11. Who needs English speaking doctors when your EDI score can increase?

12. If we paid nurses a proper wage here and covered the cost of their training instead of saddling them with debt maybe we wouldn’t have this problem.

    But not gonna shit on the foreign nurses who work with my mam because they graft hard, they learn the language and they don’t grumble.

    The reason they come here for a better life and I can’t grumble at that considering some of the places they come here from. It’s on the recruiters to distinguish whether they can pass a basic English literacy test and provide ongoing English classes until they’re fluent

13. i work for a trust and i struggle with accents anyway but holy fuck there are some that absolutely can not speak English. they know certain words and will just keep saying yes to things when they don’t understand what is said. iv tried raising it as an issue but get treated like some far righter rather than someone whos bothered how that might effect patients. this will only get worse.

14. Plenty of NHS Trusts have nursing staff who can’t speak english, or can barely speak/understand English, this isn’t news

15. Some years ago, I had to attend a Mental Health Tribunal for my mother. She had been detained in a NHS secure unit under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act (1983). This was due to her aggressive behaviour towards members of the public while she was in a manic phase of bipolar disorder.

    The Tribunal chairperson was from a country in Africa. I’m not sure which one but her accent sounded similar to people from Zimbabwe.

    The thing is; her English was very poor. We had to repeat things in simpler English to make sure she understood the points we were making. Also, it was difficult for us to understand her – not because of her accent but because she was not speaking properly formed English sentences.

    It did cross my mind to raise a complaint. However, it would have been pointless as the decision was never in doubt – my mother was to stay in the unit for treatment, until she was well enough to go home. This was clearly correct to everyone in the room, apart from mum.

    Still, this did make me concerned about the poor English ability of the person who chaired the meeting and how it might affect their other duties.

16. My dad had a nurse who couldn’t read English and kept asking him to translate documents. NHS is a joke.

17. I regularly have to pass results to nurses and some of them really do make you question if they understood what I have said. It is not like I can ask for a nurse who speaks English as a first language either, so you do not know if the result has been communicated properly.

18. 4 years ago my husband and I had a panicked midnight phone call from his mum, saying that his dad (who had gone to hospital earlier that day), had collapsed and we should go. She would meet us there. We were closer and got there first. I parked the car, my husband rushed in. I followed and had to explain through a glass door, to a nurse who couldn’t speak English, who I was. I was sobbing, I just wanted to be with my husband and FIL. My MIL appeared, completely beside herself and we were let in. I said who we were seeing and they said, ‘yes, yes. [FIL full name] is here. He’s ok’. We both distinctly remember this.

    My MIL and I barrelled down a corridor and rushed into a room. He was not ok. He was dead. Not that second. We found out he had died when they rang my MIL. I do know sometimes they do this. I get it. But going into that room, expecting him to be sat there, bemusedly looking at us and instead he was utterly dead, was one of the worst moments of my life, let alone my husband and MIL’s.

    There was a whole coroners issue after this and elements of the doctors being unable to speak good English throughout his treatment, formed part of the prevention of future deaths coroners case.

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