Parents of child who died from pneumonia after not being offered hospital bed want new probe into his death

The family of a five-year-old boy who died after being sent home from Rotherham General Hospital say the findings of a new report into his death are “inaccurate”.

Yusuf Mahmoud Nazir’s family want a new investigation after the NHS England-commissioned independent review, published today, found it was the “appropriate” decision not to admit the child into hospital at the time.

Zaheer Ahmed, Yusuf’s uncle, told Sky News: “We don’t agree with the findings of that report. We believe it’s inaccurate.

“If things were done as they should have been, we still believe that Yusuf would have been here, playing, now.”

Yusuf first complained of a sore throat on 14 November 2022. His parents took him to their GP, who prescribed antibiotics.

The next day, when their son’s health did not improve, they drove him to the emergency care department of Rotherham General Hospital.

Mr Ahmed said the family told staff that Yusuf was “gasping for air” but he still had to wait six hours to be seen.

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“We were told they had a major staffing issue,” Mr Ahmed said. “We were told ‘we’ve got one doctor on tonight and they are also looking after the adults after midnight, as well as all the children’.”

When a doctor did finally examine Yusuf, he was diagnosed with severe tonsillitis.

Although the family say they told medics that Yusuf was struggling to swallow, he was sent home with a course of antibiotics in liquid form.

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Six days later, Yusuf’s condition worsened and he was taken by ambulance to Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

He died on 23 November from pneumonia.

The independent report found that medical staffing levels were below expected levels on the night that Yusuf was seen at Rotherham General Hospital.

But the review concluded the delay in being seen by a doctor would not have changed the outcome of the decision to send Yusuf home with antibiotics.

The investigation also found beds were available if he had needed to be admitted.

“If he [the doctor] had seen Yusuf earlier, he would have been sent home earlier,” the report said.

Speaking to Sky News, Dr Jo Beahan, medical director for The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust said Rotherham General Hospital made “immediate changes to staffing in the paediatric department” after Yusuf’s death and have since added additional staff to the urgent care ward.

“Yusuf waited over six hours to be seen by a doctor,” she said, “which isn’t something we would hope, we’d hope that children were waiting less time than that.”

When asked about the Yusuf’s family reaction to the report, Dr Beahan said: “As a trust I think it’s really important that we reflect on the experience that Yusuf’s family had, where we know and understand that Yusuf’s family feel like they weren’t listened to.

“However, what we do know from the report was that nothing we could have done at the time would have changed the sad death of Yusuf, so we know that our care was appropriate.”

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