NHS anaesthetist fell asleep during surgery, tribunal hears

A SENIOR NHS anaesthetist fell asleep in an operating theatre during surgery, a medical tribunal has heard.

Thomas Herbst, a 61-year old consultant, nodded off moments after he had anaesthetised a patient.

A misconduct hearing heard how Herbst was said to be in such a deep sleep that a colleague had to repeatedly tap him on the shoulder to wake him up.

When asked if he was fit for work, Herbst drank a cup of black coffee and insisted he was fine but began speaking “incoherently” and repeating himself to colleagues, the panel was told.

Later, he was said to have struggled to complete a timesheet whilst his scrub trousers kept falling down without him noticing.

Herbst, who was working as a locum at South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre, initially denied falling asleep but later admitted he “may have closed his eyes, been daydreaming, or ‘slightly snoozing’”.

At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), he was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and suspended for six months after he offered to cut down the number of shifts he worked each week. It emerged he had previously been given a warning by the General Medical Council (GMC) for falling asleep in theatre in 2020 as another colleague was completing an operation.

Herbst claims he was tired on the day of the operation, Sep 27 2022, due to him spending most of the previous evening completing his tax return. He told the tribunal that NHS workers used to be applauded for going into work yet the GMC had decided to “prosecute him in a horrible way” when he had “become ill probably through working in a hospital”.

A fellow anaesthetist known as Dr A told the hearing: “I was working in another theatre when a nurse from Dr Herbst’s theatre asked me to come and speak with him to see if the anaesthetised patient was okay.

“Whilst doing so, I found Dr Herbst asleep. When I called his name I did not receive a verbal response and I said: ‘Doctor, can you hear me – open your eyes’ in an attempt to wake him. He was in a deep sleep and he only woke up after I repeatedly tapped him on his shoulder.”

A theatre support assistant said she had seen Herbst asleep on a chair next to the anaesthesia machine as the surgeon was putting “knife to skin”.

MPTS chairman Mrs Claire Lindley ordered Herbst to face a review hearing later in the year.

‘I said: “Doctor, can you hear me?” He was in a deep sleep and only woke up when I tapped his shoulder’