A CONSULTANT at Salisbury District Hospital was removed from treating Yulia Skripal after asking her questions about her poisoning when she suddenly woke up.

Dr Stephen Cockcroft was the ICU consultant who treated Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the first 24 hours after they arrived at Salisbury Hospital on March 4, 2018.

At the Dawn Sturgess Public Inquiry on October 31, Dr Cockcroft said his initial working diagnosis was that the two had suffered a drugs overdose. He said Salisbury had suffered an unusually high number of drug overdose patients in the months preceding the incident.

However, he began to suspect poisoning, and his suspicions were further raised when a police officer said to him: “I think you should Google Sergei Skripal, you’re not going to believe what I have just found out.

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He said his thoughts turned to previous incidents where highly potent synthetic opiates had been used in assassinations, such as by the Israelis in Jordan and the Russians in Chechnya.

“I was really concerned for Yulia Skripal’s welfare,” he said, adding that he thought she had “catastrophic brain damage”.

Ms Skripal had been placed in a sedation hold, but suddenly she woke up. He said a nurse ran up to him and said, “Steve, come quick, Yulia is getting out of bed”.

'This is a girl I never thought I would see move again''This is a girl I never thought I would see move again' (Image: PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo)

Dr Cockcroft said: “I will be honest with you, I was actually gobsmacked, this is a girl I never thought I would see move again.

“I never thought she would be capable of having a conversation.”

He said Yulia looked “terrified”.

He said he told her: “Your father is in the next room, we think you have been poisoned, did anybody attack you?”

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Mr Cockcroft also asked her if she had been sprayed with anything.

He defended his decision to speak to her while she was awake, saying “you can’t just not talk to them”.

After this incident, he said he was removed from the intensive care rota covering Mr and Ms Skripal by Dr Christine Blanshard, the medical director of the hospital.

He said: “I always talk to my patients even when I think they can’t hear me, to explain what’s happening."

Mr Cockcroft said that Ms Blanshard's attitude was “a little difficult”.

In his statement he said he was summoned to a meeting with Ms Blanshard to discuss his handling of the incident on March 12.

“There is no formal record of that meeting, however, I was suspended from working on the ICU with immediate effect until Yulia or Sergei had either been discharged or died.

“Apparently by having had a conversation with Yulia Skripal I had been unprofessional and should have left such a conversation to the security services.”

He was taken off the rota and told not to discuss the poisoning with colleagues, or it would be "treated as serious misconduct".

What followed was “a very difficult time” he said, with colleagues stopping talking about the poisoning in front of him.

The Inquiry continues until December 2.