Asthma victim locked out of health centre as guard sleeps

FEET up and flat out: the health centre security guard

A HEALTH centre security guard failed to notice a man suffering an asthma attack — because he was fast asleep.

Mohammed Tafil (33) became increasingly worried during the night when his inhaler was proving ineffective in keeping his breathlessness at bay.

He rang the Go To Doc service and was told to visit the Integrated Care Centre in Oldham town centre, where a doctor would be waiting to see him. But when he got there he found the sliding doors were locked.

Distressed and out of breath at 2.30am, he banged on the glass doors to try to wake the guard snoozing at the reception, but gave up after 20 minutes.

Mr Tafil, of Brompton Street, Glodwick, said: “I couldn’t believe it, I was banging on the doors and shouting but there was no way I could get his attention, he was fast asleep.
“I didn’t want to go to accident and emergency as it wasn’t life or death and I didn’t want to waste their resources.

“It was frustrating when I could see he was asleep, I could have been having a serious asthma attack.”

The health centre stopped being a full 24-hour service in December in an effort to cut costs after it was revealed an average of only four people a night were using it.

But Mr Tafil was still told to visit the on-call doctor based there. He said: “I was told there would be a nebuliser to help my breathing.

“After trying to get in I rang them back. They said the doctor had left the building and I would have to go home.

“To be quite honest I was just shocked. I had to struggle through the night because of their incompetence.”

Mr Tafil was called back by Go To Doc at 5am however he decided to get some rest and went to his GP surgery at 8am.

Shauna Dixon, managing director of NHS Oldham which employs the guard, said: “We can only apologise to Mr Tafil for his experience that evening.’

“This is the first time a patient has not been able to get in the building for their appointment in the two years the out of hours service has been based there.

“The security guard is responsible for making sure patients can get in to the building. There is absolutely no excuse for what happened and we are making sure the appropriate disciplinary action is taken immediately.”

NHS Oldham has now written to Mr Tafil to apologise.

Chief executive of Go To Doc David Beckett said the doctor had been called out on an emergency home visit at the time and staff made an effort to call the patient when he failed to turn up for his appointment.

He added: “We are sorry Mr Tafil had the experience he did.”