Dr Nusrat Mir

Dr Nusrat Mir is a Consultant General Adult & Perinatal Psychiatrist at Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust. He provided medical leadership to the Sheffield Perinatal Mental Health Service between 2009 and 2021, spearheading its development into a regional multidisciplinary service for South Yorkshire, and is currently a Consultant in the Sheffield North Adult Community Mental Health Team.

He has delivered numerous educational lectures and seminars to undergraduate and postgraduate specialists over the years, and has coauthored research publications in peer-reviewed neuroscientific journals. He has a special interest in the psychiatric disorders of pregnancy and the postpartum period.

An Expert Witness since 2009, he is regularly instructed by lawyers from across the UK on clinical negligence cases, particularly those related to birth trauma in all its manifestations, and was selected as the winner of the prestigious “Medico-legal Expert of the Year (UK) 2023” Award by Lawyer Monthly Magazine in December 2023.

He currently provides medical leadership to a Community Mental Health Team dedicated to the care of patients with severe and complex psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, severe depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, as well as complex post-traumatic stress disorder. He covers a deprived area of North Sheffield with a very diverse population. Moreover, he is on the UK Register of Expert Witnesses, and is accredited by the charity Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA).

Dr Mir noted: “I pride myself on being approachable, and believe my ability to network effectively and connect directly with my clients has been a particular strength. About nine years ago, I was instructed on a tragic case in Northern Ireland in which a lady of a professional background had smothered her newborn baby son to death. I was instructed by her solicitor to examine her and provide a psychiatric opinion on her state of mind at the time. It was clear to me that the lady had suffered from postpartum psychosis – a rare, but devastating, sudden-onset psychiatric disorder. In this case, it had been characterised by a severely depressed mood, as well as delusional thinking. When it went to court, my independent evidence was factored into the sentencing, as the Judge’s verdict in the end was one of manslaughter as opposed to murder.

“For me personally, this was a landmark case in my medicolegal career, as up until then, I had only ever been instructed on general adult psychiatric cases – not on perinatal ones. I have since been instructed on numerous perinatal claims, particularly clinical negligence, and continue to receive instructions on a regular basis. Consequently, in 2023, I was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK) in recognition of my contributions made to clinical service delivery and development, as well as teaching and research, in the NHS.”