A doctor in the UK wrongly diagnosed 77 year old women with a parasitic infection of the intestines while she was actually suffering from kidney disease.

Dr Neeraj Tekkar make the error when he examined her at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital in Dorset. He believed that she was suffering from hookworm, which is common in the subcontinent but relatively rare in the UK.

Sheriff Payne, the Bournemouth coroner said that the women would have been alive if she received proper treatment from the doctors. He said that she died of natural causes with "neglect a contributory factor".

He said that, Dr Tekkar "came up with a novel diagnosis that she was suffering from hookworm - he reassured the family. He effectively ignored readings that showed renal impairment. He should have got further advice on that aspect and not let her leave the hospital. I think she may well have been saved or lived longer if there had been more attention carried out." She died of complications from a strangulated hernia and kidney disease.

Dr Tekkar, who completed his training as a doctor in 2003, moved to the UK in 2009 and started working at Bournemouth Hospital in 2011. He is still working with the hospital but his position is under review by the General Medical Council.