Placards were waved as hundreds of people joined a protest outside a hospital.

North Middlesex Hospital was swarming with people, mainly from the Turkish community, on Saturday afternoon during a protest against the death of a three-year-old boy.

Toddler Armağan Denli died of meningitis last weekend, but his parents say he was sent home earlier on Saturday after doctors said it was only chicken pox.

His death comes just after that of 30-year-old restaurant owner Murat Alaboğaz, who died from complications in his pancreas after being admitted with crippling pains in his abdomen but his family claim that even hours before he died he was being kept waiting on a bed in a hospital corridor.

Timur Ekingen, one of the protest organisers, said: “The DGB believes standards at North Middlesex Hospital are plummeting and staff at the facility are under pressure and overworked.

“We believe Turkish speakers in Britain, many of whom do not have a strong command of English, suffer more than most patients because they are unable to explain their symptoms to staff who do not have the time to listen.”

The protest, which saw hundreds of people waving placards in memory of Armağan and Murat, was hosted by The Democratic Joint Forces platform - in Turkish ‘DGB’ or Demokratik Güç Birliği Platform - which represents 20 Turkish-speaking community associations operating in the UK.

Mr Ekingen added: “It was a very big success - more than 1,500 people came to join the protest including the family of Armağan Denli.

“Some Turkish doctors and senior members of our community spoke to the hospital about his death and the hospital said it is investigating fully.”

One protestor, who did not wish to be named, was handing out leaflets about the protest and carried a large photo of Armagan.

She said: “All of us wanted to show our support to his family at this time, and that’s why so many of us have come here.

“The hospital has to hear the voice of the Turkish community so that something as tragic as this can never happen again.”

In a statement, the hospital’s director of nursing Paul Reeves said: “We offer our sincere condolences to Armağan’s family. The team of doctors and nurses who treated Armağan in our A&E on Saturday afternoon and early Sunday morning are devastated by his death.

“As with all child deaths, a full investigation has begun but has not yet concluded.

“We will share all the results of these with Armağan’s family as soon as we can but we owe them a duty of confidentiality and cannot disclose the details of these findings to others.”