Yusuf family welcome new independent review into 5-year-old's death

The family of a five-year-old boy who died after being sent home from hospital have welcomed news that a new independent review has been granted into the case.

The head of NHS England has authorised a fresh investigation into the death of Yusuf Mahmud Nazir after the family blasted a previous review into the youngster's death as a “cover-up”.

Heartbroken relatives of the Thornhill Primary School pupil, who died in November 2022, said they had received a 49-page report – 13 pages longer than the one published last October – and claimed the abridged version was missing “crucial information”.

Yusuf's mother Soniya and uncle Zaheer Ahmed met with the former health secretary Victoria Atkins in March to share their concerns over the independent report which had found Yusuf’s care across NHS services in South Yorkshire was appropriate.

The family have also had two meetings at the Houses of Parliament with the then shadow health secretary Wes Streeting – now the current health secretary – who branded the original investigation “whitewashed and sanitised”.

Mr Streeting backed the family's call for a second report saying the first “varies enormously with the report that the family were shown only days before final publication”.

He added: “It has led the family to feel like their voices have been lost.”

Mr Ahmed said: “We are very grateful to the the last health secretary Victoria Atkins as she escalated the issue to the head of the NHS in England Amanda Pritchard.

“Now Professor Simon Kenny (national clinical director for children and young people) is involved and we have met with him to go through the report.

“He has flagged five major concerns – as well as lots of smaller ones – and a full independent review has been authorised, which is what we as a family wanted in the first place.

“We have really had to fight for this, we just wanted people to listen to us.

“Now we hope we are finally being listened to.”

Mr Ahmed previously said he “begged” Rotherham Hospital to treat his nephew's severe throat infection in November 2022.

But the family, from Masbrough, were told the hospital had “not got the doctors and not got the beds”.

Two days later, Yusuf was unable to speak, eat or drink and was taken by ambulance to Sheffield Children’s Hospital where he seemed to improve.

His condition later deteriorated and he died on November 23.

A spokesperson for Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our thoughts and condolences remain with Yusuf’s family.

“We fully cooperated with the original independent inquiry, and we will continue to cooperate fully with any further investigations.”

Mr Ahmed said the family had not been given a timeline but that it was expected the new investigation would be “quite quick” to be concluded.

“We are also very grateful to Wes Streeting and our MP Sarah Champion,” he said.

“We appreciate their time and support which helped get us to the stage where we have been listened to, understood and a new investigation has been secured.”