The family of a five-year-old boy who died a week after he was sent home from a hospital emergency department is meeting with Health Secretary Victoria Atkins as they call for a fresh investigation.
Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died on November 23 2022 – eight days after he was seen at Rotherham Hospital and sent home with antibiotics.
A report into Yusuf’s case last year, by independent consultants and published by NHS South Yorkshire, found that his care was appropriate and “an admission was not clinically required”, but this was rejected by his family.
Yusuf’s uncle, Zaheer Ahmed, has insisted they were told “there are no beds and not enough doctors” and complained that he should have been admitted and given intravenous antibiotics in Rotherham.
Mr Ahmed and other family members met with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting last week, and are now meeting with the Health Secretary on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Ahmed told the PA news agency: “He should have been admitted on that day, he should have been given IV antibiotics on that day, and he wouldn’t have died.”
He said the NHS report published in October missed out a range of evidence, and the final version had 13 pages redacted from the version he was first given.
Mr Ahmed said: “This is not independent at all. There’s a lot of things missing out of it.
“Thirteen pages have been taken out of it. Everything about Yusuf has been taken out.”
He said: “An honest fair investigation by a completely independent body. That’s what we’re wanting.”
The report published by NHS South Yorkshire concluded: “We consider that on the basis of Yusuf’s observations, presentation and diagnosis there was a reasonable expectation that the antibiotics prescribed were appropriate and an admission was not clinically required.”
It also concluded that “a bed would have been found” if an admission had been deemed necessary.
The report set out how Yusuf, who had asthma, was taken to the GP with a sore throat on November 15, as he had a sore throat and was feeling unwell, and he was prescribed antibiotics by an advanced nurse practitioner.
Later that evening, his parents took him to Rotherham Hospital Urgent & Emergency Care Centre (UECC) where he was seen in the early hours of the morning after a six-hour wait.
Yusuf was discharged with a diagnosis of severe tonsillitis and an extended prescription of antibiotics, the report said.
Two days later, Yusuf was given further antibiotics by his GP for a possible chest infection, but his family became so concerned they called an ambulance and insisted the paramedics take him to Sheffield Children’s Hospital rather than Rotherham.
Yusuf was admitted to the intensive care unit on November 21 but developed multi-organ failure and suffered several cardiac arrests which he did not survive.
The report said there was only one doctor in the paediatric UECC on November 15 and, after midnight, that medic was responsible for covering adults and children.
But it added: “The doctor who eventually saw Yusuf is an experienced UECC doctor who would not have needed to refer to a paediatrician on the basis of Yusuf’s presentation that night and would not have needed to do any further investigations or admit him.
“If he had seen him earlier, he would have been sent home earlier, he would not have requested an admission.”
After the report was published last year, Mr Ahmed said: “Yusuf was a very, very jolly, playful child. A very happy child, very independent.
“He was really active and full of happiness and full of energy.”
Dr Jo Beahan, medical director at The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We were all deeply saddened by the tragic circumstances surrounding Yusuf’s death.
“It is something no parent wants to go through, and our sympathies remain with Yusuf’s family.
“Given the concerns raised by Yusuf’s family at the time, an independent investigation was commissioned by the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
“The trust fully co-operated with the investigation and accepted the recommendations made within the report, which was published in October 2023.
“The independent investigation found that, sadly, there was nothing that could have been done differently that would have saved Yusuf’s life.”
Dr Beahan added: “Yusuf was monitored during the period he waited to see a doctor.
“The CCTV footage of the period in the waiting room was considered by the investigators in the independent report. Yusuf was then seen by a very experienced doctor on the morning of November 16 and was given an increased dose of antibiotics.
“If an admission had been considered necessary at that point, Yusuf would have been admitted to the children’s ward.”