Aberdeen teenager Shomi Miah died from meningitis in last year

Shomi Miah, 17, from Aberdeen, died last year after her relatives made repeated calls to the telephone service and waited 12 hours for treatment.

They believe a quicker NHS 24 response could have saved her life and have campaigned for a reform of the service.

The report recognised there were problems with the service in relation to the length of call waiting times.

The Miah family first called NHS 24 in the early evening on the day Shomi became ill in October.

After becoming worried about the teenager's condition they said they were told by the service to give her paracetamol and put a towel over her head.

NHS 24 could have possibly saved Shomi's life if they had more staff on duty that night Anis Miah Shomi's brother

Despite making a number of further calls, Shomi was not taken to hospital until the following morning - she died later that day.

Shomi's brother, Anis, said while the findings would not bring back his sister he was glad the problems with NHS 24 had been acknowledged.

Speaking from the family home in Aberdeen following the release of the report, the 16-year-old said: "It is a good thing that the bad points are coming out now so people can realise what has been happening.

"Hopefully, NHS 24 can now be improved so that what happened to my sister does not happen to anyone else.

"At first we thought Shomi's case was just a one-off, but when more people started speaking out we realised it was not.

"NHS 24 could have possibly saved Shomi's life if they had more staff on duty that night."

He said it appeared to the family that those manning the service were following a "routine questionnaire" when there should have been more experienced staff available.

Second death

"We should not be having to recognise the symptoms of meningitis, they should," he added.

"They spoke to me and they spoke to my brother, before asking to speak to Shomi, who was not fit to speak at all.

"We gave her the phone and after they spoke to her they hung up. We asked Shomi what NHS 24 had said but she was too ill to answer our questions."

Last week, the Crown Office announced that a joint fatal accident inquiry would be held into Shomi's death and that of Steven Wiseman, 30, from Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire.

Mr Wiseman died in December after complaining of flu-like symptoms after his fianc�e called NHS 24 in the early hours of the morning and was told to administer painkillers and wait for her doctor's surgery to open.