poke and prod

"He could not afford to be laid up in a hospital with doctors poking and prodding him."
Isn't it sort of redundant to use both 'poking' and 'prodding'?

"His discomfort and embarrassment was obvious".
'Was' is the wrong word here. Right?

to "poke and prod" is a set expression in English

it isn't redundant

They also mean slightly different things. For example, if you poked someone with a neee it would be quite different than prodding them.