Malpractice ending explained: What happened to Lucinda?

For those who have made their way through all five episodes already, just what did happen to Lucinda in the end? And what was really going on with those opioid prescriptions?

Read on for everything you need to know about the ending of Malpractice on ITV.

*Warning - contains full spoilers for all five episodes of Malpractice*

Malpractice ending explained

What was going on with the opioid overdoses?

While it may have seemed from the penultimate episode's cliffhanger that Lucinda had really gone off the deep end, and was about to start prescribing drugs to addicts for Jubair, she was actually recording his every word in an attempt to incriminate him.

Lucinda gave this recording to George and Norma, who revealed that Rob had died. She then approached Eva herself and tried to convince her to admit what Jubair had been doing.

Eva told Lucinda that Rob used to prescribe opioids for his addict brother and then decided to become looser with his prescribing, believing it was better than addicts resorting to more dangerous street drugs. Eva then funnelled him patients at the rehab clinic, telling Lucinda that addiction treatment in the UK is just a revolving door anyway.

Eva told Lucinda that Rob had always been careful with his prescribing, and that the overdoses only started happening recently, suggesting something was wrong. When Rob had told Jubair about his concerns, Jubair had threatened him, telling him the operation went way higher than just himself.

Lucinda then visited previous overdose patient Milo, who revealed he did get his fentanyl patches via prescription from Wellspring pharmacy, leading Lucinda to believe that the batch was too strong.

She came to the hospital and used Oscar's audit to check whether the batch had been recalled, confirming her suspicions.

She angrily confronted Dr Willett, telling him that the drugs that killed Edith came from the hospital and accusing him of diverting waste drugs in order to sell them to addicts. He angrily told her that she couldn't be trusted because she herself was an addict.

Despondent, Lucinda returned home, but then she got a call from Camilla telling her her friend had overdosed on the fentanyl she prescribed. Lucinda rushed to her aid, but found that it was a trick, and Jubair and two other men were waiting for her. They held her down and then injected her with a lethal dose of oxycodone.

She was brought into the A&E department by an ambulance and while Oscar struggled to keep it together and went into a tailspin, Ramya managed to keep her cool and save Lucinda's life by giving her diazepam.

As she recovered in hospital, George and Norma visited her and revealed that Eva had told them everything, revealing everything she knew about Jubair and the larger network and admitting to planting an incriminating prescription in Edith's flat.

Lucinda is proven right - for the past five years the hospital had increasingly over-ordered drugs, and waste drugs went to charity Developing Aid. But who was behind it?

Who else was involved in the drugs operation?

It turns out Developing Aid was set up by four British doctors, including... Leo! Leo had legally hid his trustee status to the charity, trying to obscure his involvement, but through their investigation George and Norma had uncovered the truth.

They put it to Leo that he had been profiting from the illegal sale of prescription drugs to wealthy addicts and manipulating audit data to cover up that he was making the hospital over-order drugs and then hiding the extent of the hospital's drug waste.

George and Norma told Leo that the police wanted to speak to him regarding regular payments into an offshore account, and he was then arrested and led out by the police. Eva was also arrested for her involvement in the scheme.

Following this, Jubair was stabbed by Yussuf, the patient who had been brought in at the start of the season by a man with a gun and said he felt "safer" in the hospital than at home. As he got in his getaway vehicle, it turned out it was being driven by the gunman.

What happened to Lucinda?

Lucinda visited the hospital on the day of her tribunal to thank Ramya, and tell her she was going to make an excellent doctor.

She then went to the tribunal, but before going in was told by Norma that because her name was now linked with Jubair, having written the prescription for Camilla, she would have to admit her diazepam addiction at the tribunal.

Tom visited her at the tribunal, and Lucinda told to him that the diazepam helps her cope with her job, admitting that the strain of the life and death pressure is keeping her on the edge of a breakdown every shift.

Lucinda finally admitted that she needs help to Tom, before walking into the tribunal to meet her fate, whatever it should be.

Malpractice is available in full on ITVX now. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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