Investigation reports

This investigation found that the system for communicating with patients on healthcare waiting lists is in ‘disarray’, and concluded that significant and repeated failures across the system amounted to ‘systemic maladministration’.

It urged the Department of Health to work with Health Trusts, GPs and others to address the failings.

A woman complained that a dental practice should have provided her with a filling rather than giving root canal treatment.  We did not uphold the complaint.

We concluded that a dental practice’s refusal to remove a patient’s tooth when she requested it was not a failure, but criticised the practice for the quality of some its dental records.

We concluded that a dental practice did not follow the correct procedures when removing a patient from its list.  We also found that its records regarding the patient’s complaint were prepared several months after the alleged incidents occurred.

A man claimed that his son should have been entitled to priority dental treatment during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.  We did not uphold the complaint, finding that the treatment was not allowed within the restrictions at the time.