Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman

Introduction

Dr Yasser Adly Abdel Rahman is an Egyptian surgeon who worked in the United Kingdom as an NHS locum surgeon and was struck off the medical register in 2026 after a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing in Manchester concluded that his misconduct was “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration”. The case concerned an emergency bowel procedure he carried out on a young man at the Royal Oldham Hospital on 25 August 2020. The operation went so badly wrong that it was described as “not compatible with life”: the patient was left in “uncontrollable pain” and could have died but for a second operation in which another surgeon corrected the error. A former consultant general and colorectal surgeon, acting as the General Medical Council’s expert witness, told the hearing that the procedure Rahman carried out was “not known to man”.

Background Information

Rahman qualified in 1993 from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, and subsequently worked in Britain as a locum surgeon for the National Health Service, filling temporary posts including one at the Royal Oldham Hospital. By the time of the 2026 proceedings he was no longer practising under any restriction-free registration: the tribunal that erased him sat in Manchester, heard evidence about his conduct as a locum, and documented his attempts to continue working despite an earlier order restricting his practice. Beyond his medical qualification and locum employment, the public record of his career is dominated by the events of 25 August 2020 and the regulatory proceedings that followed; detailed biographical information about his earlier life and training beyond his 1993 graduation has not been widely reported.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings against Abdel Rahman are those of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, a regulatory body, and are regulatory findings to the civil standard — not criminal convictions. He was never criminally charged, and no court has convicted him of any offence. What the tribunal found — significant errors in surgery and post-operative care, and a breach of an order restricting his practice — is a matter of regulatory record. His claim that he was made a scapegoat after a witch hunt is his own assertion, documented but not accepted as a finding by the tribunal.

On 25 August 2020, while working as a locum at the Royal Oldham Hospital, Rahman carried out an emergency bowel procedure on a young man. According to what the MPTS heard, the operation was flawed in its construction: the contents of the patient’s bowel, leaving his stomach, were re-deposited back into his stomach through a circular “closed loop”. The patient was left in “uncontrollable pain” and could have died but for another surgeon correcting the error in a second operation, the misconduct hearing sitting in Manchester was told. The tribunal heard that Rahman at no time considered that something may have gone wrong surgically, despite the patient’s parents and other medics expressing concerns. The General Medical Council’s expert witness, a former consultant general and colorectal surgeon, said the procedure was “not known to man” and that Rahman’s error was “as bad as it gets”; the operation itself was described as “not compatible with life”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The MPTS imposed an order restricting Rahman’s work as a doctor in July 2021, the year after the operation. The tribunal found that he breached the conditions of that order when he applied for and secured a job as a locum at the Affidea Express Care Clinic in Ireland in February 2022. It ruled that this breach was an “aggravating” feature of the case, on top of already “significant” errors in surgery and post-operative care, the hearing was told. Rahman did not attend the hearing and was not legally represented. He claimed he had been made a “scapegoat” after a “witch hunt” following the operation. The case drew national coverage when the BBC reported the strike-off in August 2026, with the account of an operation described as “not compatible with life” and an expert’s judgment that the error was “as bad as it gets” centring public attention on the standards and oversight of locum surgical work in the NHS.

Current Status

Rahman has been erased from the medical register, the ruling that allows a doctor to work as a physician in the United Kingdom. The tribunal concluded in a ruling the month before the BBC’s 4 August 2026 report — that is, in July 2026 — that his misconduct was “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration” and ordered erasure. As he did not attend the proceedings and was not legally represented, the findings stand unchallenged by any defence submission, although his documented position remains that he was made a scapegoat after a witch hunt. His breach of the July 2021 restrictions, by taking the Irish locum post in February 2022, was found by the tribunal and recorded as an aggravating feature, so his regulatory record now includes both the original surgical failures and non-compliance with the sanction that followed them.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The erasure ended Rahman’s ability to work as a doctor in the United Kingdom, closing a career that had begun with his qualification at Ain Shams University in Cairo in 1993 and had continued through NHS locum posts including the Royal Oldham Hospital. The tribunal’s conclusion that his misconduct was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration — rather than a lapse correctable by conditions or suspension — marks the findings as among the most serious a medical tribunal can make. The documented attempt to work at the Affidea Express Care Clinic in Ireland while under a restricting order became an aggravating feature of the case against him, and the tribunal’s account that he at no time considered something may have gone wrong surgically, despite concerns raised by the patient’s parents and other medics, stands as part of the regulatory record. His scapegoat and witch-hunt claims, made without legal representation and without his attendance, did not alter the outcome.