Investigation reports

A Trust’s failure to accurately report on a patient’s CT scan meant she and her family could not prepare for her end-of-life care.

Delays by the Northern Trust in replying to a woman’s telephone calls added to her anxiety about her mother’s care.  We recommended that the Trust apologise to the woman and make improvements to its complaint handling procedures.

A woman complained about her father’s treatment in hospital during the last weeks of his life. We found he was looked after properly, but were critical that consultants did not respond to a request from the woman to discuss his care plan.

We found no failings by the Antrim Area Hospital in the care and treatment of a patient with severe heart valve disease.

We upheld a number of complaints against the Northern Health Trust, including that hospital staff did not give an elderly patient enough fluids, nor appropriately monitor her over a 24-hour period.

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.

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 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.

We partially upheld a complaint that a patient contracted sepsis because he was released too early from Antrim Area Hospital.  We asked the hospital to apologise for its failings, and to review its procedures on discharge of patients from the ward in question.