Doctor banned after misdiagnosing ectopic pregnancy

The doctor made the potentially life-threatening error while working at Liverpool Women's Hospital

A former doctor who misdiagnosed an ectopic pregnancy and told a woman to "go home and try for another" has been struck off.

Gynaecologist Ahmed Loutfi, a locum at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, can no longer practise in the UK because of the potentially life-threatening error he made in 2010.

The mother, known only as Patient A, had to have a fallopian tube removed during surgery for an ectopic pregnancy, during which an embryo begins to grow outside the womb.

Mr Loutfi wrongly diagnosed her has having had a miscarriage and lost his registration to work in 2016 after a medical practitioners tribunal.

Pain

He saw the woman in April and May 2010 and told her she had had a miscarriage both times.

This was despite another doctor telling her it could be an ectopic pregnancy.

Mr Loutfi then sent her home and told the woman to try to get pregnant again.

He had also previously denied the woman a stronger analgesic despite the pain she was in.

Mr Loutfi's conduct at hospitals in Manchester, Hull and Birmingham between 2012 and 2013 was also deemed grounds for his de-registration.

In Birmingham, he rotated a baby's head to such an extent that he injured it.

He attempted to get his registration back in 2022, but the tribunal has now banned him from ever again working as a doctor in the UK.

A report from his latest restoration hearing received a statement from Mr Loutfi in which he claimed to have treated the Liverpool mum correctly.

The tribunal heard how he placed responsibility for endangering the lives of patients on "native British doctors", and viewed the 2016 determination as unfair as he was a doctor from overseas, and this was an act of discrimination.

Mr Loutfi said he should be restored to the medical register because he did not commit any clinical misconduct.

He claimed his behaviour, both professional and personal, was of a high standard and that he had evidence to prove that he had been honest "all of the time" during his 30 year career, and since 2016.

Mr Loutfi said that by not restoring him the General Medical Council was endangering the lives of UK residents.

The tribunal rejected his application and indefinitely suspended his right to reapply for restoration.