A major medical negligence scandal has erupted at HMP Bronzefield prison concerning Qesser Zuhrah, a Palestine Action-affiliated detainee now on her 41st day of hunger strike. According to multiple eyewitness accounts, Zuhrah was left immobilized on her cell floor for hours while experiencing severe chest pains, dizziness, and breathing difficulties, with prison staff repeatedly refusing urgent medical requests.
The crisis began when Zuhrah contacted friend Niamh Grant at 8:30pm reporting alarming symptoms including radiating chest pain, shortness of breath, and shaking limbs. Despite repeatedly buzzing for assistance and begging for an ambulance, prison medical staff allegedly ignored her deteriorating condition. A prison officer instructed her to wait until the night nurse’s shift began at 11pm.
Although a nurse eventually conducted basic vitals and an ECG test around 10:30pm, she disappeared for hours without returning with results. When Zuhrah desperately buzzed again around 12:30am pleading ‘Can you ring an ambulance? I’m scared,’ staff reportedly hung up on her. For several critical hours, friends listened helplessly via phone as Zuhrah struggled to breathe, fearing for her life.
The nurse finally returned at 2am, asserting that ‘you don’t decide if you go to hospital, I do.’ Despite multiple NHS doctors, lawyers, and even MPs attempting to intervene throughout the night, prison staff systematically refused assistance and updates. It wasn’t until 9:30am the next morning, after Zuhrah lost consciousness, that authorities finally called an ambulance.
Adding to the controversy, the prison failed to notify Zuhrah’s next of kin about her hospitalization as promised. She was discharged that evening at 8:30pm without diagnosis or test results, though witnesses overhead ambulance staff discussing concerning ECG findings from hours earlier.
The incident has triggered political repercussions, with Justice Secretary David Lammy facing mounting pressure from multiple MPs who have written demanding urgent intervention. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle condemned Lammy’s lack of response as ‘totally unacceptable.’ On Friday, activists sprayed the Ministry of Justice building with red paint protesting the government’s handling of eight hunger strikers whose lives they claim are ‘in imminent danger.’