There are no excuses for the “series of failures” in the care of a five-year-old boy who died a week after he was sent home from hospital, the Health Secretary has said.
Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died on November 23 2022, eight days after he was seen at Rotherham Hospital and sent home with antibiotics.
Wes Streeting met Yusuf’s family on Monday after a new investigation into his death was announced last week.
A previous report into Yusuf’s case by independent consultants which was published last year by NHS South Yorkshire found that his care was appropriate and “an admission was not clinically required”, but this was rejected by his family.
The family have always said they were told “there are no beds and not enough doctors” in the emergency department, and that Yusuf should have been admitted and given intravenous antibiotics in Rotherham.
The 2023 report concluded that “the antibiotics prescribed were appropriate and an admission was not clinically required” and that “a bed would have been found” if an admission had been deemed necessary.
Speaking after the meeting at the Department of Health, Mr Streeting said the family had been “failed in the most appalling and tragic way possible”.
The Health Secretary said that, having listened to the family’s account of Yusuf’s death and comparing it with the 2023 report, it was “absolutely clear” that the family “did not have confidence that all of their questions had been answered”.
Asked what Yusuf’s death demonstrated about the strain the NHS is under, Mr Streeting told the PA news agency: “Notwithstanding the wider pressures in the NHS at the moment, and the extent to which it’s been run into the ground over the last 14 years, I actually don’t think there’s any excuse for what happened to Yusuf.
“I don’t think even in the context of an NHS under the most immense pressures that that can explain or excuse the series of failures in Yusuf’s care, or frankly, the way in which his family were treated by parts of the NHS.”
Mr Streeting added that it was crucial the new investigation left “no stone unturned” and that its recommendations were actioned.
He said: “We can’t bring Yusuf back, but we can provide the families the answers they deserve, and we can make sure that because of Yusuf, and thanks to Yusuf, that other children will be safer and better cared for in the future.”
Speaking outside the Department of Health, Yusuf’s uncle, Zaheer Ahmed, described the previous report as a “cover-up”, saying it missed out a range of evidence and that the final document had 13 pages redacted from the version he was first given.
He was very active. Not ill, not a child that regularly visits the doctors or anything - absolutely fit and fine.
Mr Ahmed added that the family had a “lot of confidence” in the new investigation thanks to the Government’s involvement.
Asked what could have been done better for Yusuf, he said: “They just need to listen to families – look at our concerns, listen to our concerns.
“A parent knows his child, so we know when something’s wrong and it’s not right.”
Mr Ahmed went on to describe his nephew as “very full of energy” and that he loved PE and watching cartoons.
He added: “He was very active. Not ill, not a child that regularly visits the doctors or anything – absolutely fit and fine.”
The previous report set out how Yusuf, who had asthma, was taken to the GP with a sore throat and feeling unwell on November 15 and was prescribed antibiotics by an advanced nurse practitioner.
Later that evening his family 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.
