The family of a pensioner who died at a Hampstead care home has called for an investigation into her care during her last moments.
Shireen Jamil, has said questions need to be asked as to why staff at Compton Lodge did not calling a doctor to see her mother Yasmin Quraishi, who was suffering from norovirus before she died, aged 81, on February 20.
Ms Jamil also wants to know why she wasn’t alerted to her mother being ill.
Ms Quraishi was found dead in her bed on Tuesday morning after a bout of norovirus.
She was severely disabled, and had suffered with Rheumatoid Arthiritis for several years.
Her daughter Shireen had visited her on Saturday, and had found her mother in good spirits and wasn’t ill.
However days later Ms Jamil got a call from her brother, who broke the bad news to her.
Ms Jamil’s son received an answerphone message from “beyond the grave” from Ms Quraishi.
The message had been left before she died, saying that she felt ill, and she said that unless she saw a doctor she was going to die.
Because of a delay in getting the message, Ms Jamil’s son didn’t get it until after her mother had died.
Ms Jamil was horrified to learn a doctor or ambulance hadn’t been called for her mother, and said she hadn’t been told her mother was ill.
She has now formally complained to Central and Cecil Care Homes, which runs Compton Lodge, and the Care and Quality Commission (CQC).
She said: “I want answers as to why this happened.
“If someone is ill, why are the family not told, as usually happens? Why was an ambulance not called even though they were asking for one?”
But Central and Cecil Care Homes said they followed correct procedure by not calling a doctor as Ms Quraishi was suffering from an infectious virus and that it was established practice not to call an ambulance.
A spokesman said: “It is an established health and safety procedure for a doctor to remain away from a site during an incidence of norovirus, in order to ensure the illness does not spread.”
The care home declined to comment on why the family wasn’t called and told that Ms Quraishi was ill before she died.
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