The Shanghai Medical Emergency Center is looking into an accusation that it did not send an ambulance to pick up a 3-year-old Turkish-British boy at a restaurant in Huangpu district after he suffered a head injury that led to his death, the center's director told the Global Times Thursday.

"We are investigating the exact time we received the phone call, and will announce the result later," said Guan Min, the center's director.

The accident took place at a farewell dinner at the Kervan Orient Express restaurant on Jiujiang Road Monday evening. The boy got hit in the head after he accidentally fell down and pulled down a folding screen on top of him, said Sun Ying, a manager at the restaurant.

"I saw the boy was bleeding, and knew that it was a serious injury," Sun told the Global Times Thursday. "We called 120 immediately, but the operator said no ambulances were available and suggested it would be faster to take the child to hospital ourselves."

The restaurant's owner carried the boy to a taxi, which took him to the nearest hospital five blocks away. However, the hospital specialized in traditional Chinese medicine and didn't have an emergency room.

Sun then asked for help from a local driver, who took the boy to Huangpu District Central Hospital, a second-tier medical institution.

"The medical staff there gave the boy basic medical care, but they said they did not have suitable facilities to treat the boy," Sun said. "They suggested he be taken to a larger hospital."

The boy died at the hospital around 9 pm, waiting for an ambulance to arrive. "A senior nurse called the medical emergency center again for us, but the ambulance never appeared, even after the boy passed away," Sun said.

Sun said police determined the death was accidental.

The Shanghai Medical Emergency Center has been coping with a staffing problem. Due to a lack of medical professionals, it was operating in 2012 with about half of the 1,000 paramedics that the city required, according to the center.