The family of an 89-year-old sheltered housing resident who died after paramedics were prevented from entering his room is to call on the Care Quality Commission to investigate.

Leslie Coombs suffered a stroke on and collapsed in his room at Jubilee Court, in Nottingham, owned by housing association Places for People.

An AA telephone operator, who had been talking to Mr Coombs about his car when he suffered the stroke, alerted paramedics who arrived to fi nd Mr Coombs’ door locked.

They phoned Jubilee Court’s on-call service to grant them access to the onsite key safe. Nottingham City Homes, which runs the on-call service, told the paramedics permission to access the key safe could not be granted over the phone and that they would have to wait for a member of staff to open the door.

Twenty-six minutes passed before a member of staff arrived. Mr Coombs died of a heart attack in hospital nine days later.