Investigation Reports

We investigated a woman’s complaint that her father did not receive appropriate care in the Emergency Department of the Mater Hospital, Belfast.  We found there were failures in his treatment, but that they did not ultimately lead to a deterioration in his health.

A woman complained about the treatment given to her mother in the Emergency Department of the Ulster Hospital.  We found her treatment on the whole was appropriate, but made a number of training recommendations for nursing staff.

We found that a man recovering from a stomach operation was discharged too early from the ICU of Belfast City Hospital. We asked the Trust to apologise, and to review the treatment of a number of other patients who had returned to ICU following a similar operation.

The wife of a cancer patient complained about his care in Belfast City Hospital. We found that overall the patient’s pain was appropriately assessed and managed. However, we also concluded that he failed to get radiotherapy when he needed it because of a delay in receiving a biopsy.

The parents of a 20 month old boy complained about the care he received in Antrim Area Hospital, saying that they had to leave the Emergency Department as they feared staff were inept.  Our investigation found that his treatment was acceptable and within the Trust’s guidelines.

We asked the Western Health and Social Care Trust to use the newly appointed Learning Disability Liaison Nurse to ensure that appropriate training is provided to staff who care for patients with disabilities. We also recommended it develop an online information resource for staff to help them care for other vulnerable adults.

The Ombudsman has called for more to be done to help families of care home residents after an investigation found that the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust failed in its duty to monitor the quality of care provided to a resident of Dunmurry Manor.

We found that the Northern Health and Social Care Trust carried out a safeguarding investigation broadly in line with its procedures, but were critical that the investigation did not find out how the resident sustained bruising during her time in the home.

Our investigation found that the care and treatment of a patient in the Royal Victoria Hospital was reasonable and appropriate.  However, we also found that she should have been told what symptoms to look out for in case she needed to return to the Emergency Department or visit her GP.

We concluded that a 25% cut to a complainant’s rates bill was appropriate financial redress for the problems she experienced, but asked the Land and Property Service to put in new procedures to help them trace ratepayers more effectively.