Investigation Reports

We asked Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council to take a number of learning points from our investigation into the way it dealt with a complaint that a wind turbine breached planning control.

We criticised the way in which the Northern Trust carried out a health check to a patient three weeks before her death.  We found the outcome for the patient may have been different if the treatment and subsequent record keeping had met relevant standards.

A man complained about the way the Housing Executive dealt with his concerns about episodes of Anti-Social Behaviour.  We upheld the complaint, finding that the Housing Executive did not manage the claims in line with its Anti-Social Behaviour manual.

The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has apologised to the family of a man for a number of failures while he was in hospital for lung cancer. However, we welcomed the learning and commitment to service improvement identified by the Trust following our investigation into the complaint.

We found no maladministration in the way the Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment’s made its decision about an exam grade, but were critical of the system it had in place for receiving appeals.

We partly upheld a complaint from a woman who was unhappy about her hospital treatment during the later stages of her pregnancy.

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.