Investigation reports

A patient was in pain for longer than necessary because of delays by the Belfast Trust to obtain the results of a private MRI scan.

The Belfast Trust has put in place new procedures for carrying out pre-operative assessments after we partially upheld a man’s complaint.

A woman experienced worry, uncertainty, and frustration because her concerns about being fitted with a pacemaker were not properly addressed by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

The Ombudsman has found that Belfast Health and Social Care Trust should have communicated more clearly with a patient’s family before she was discharged from hospital into respite care.

A check by the Belfast Trust to see whether a nursing home resident was entitled to continuing healthcare was incorrect.  We asked it to carry out a new assessment.

A woman complained about the treatment given to her late mother in the Royal Victoria Hospital.  We found the patient’s care was largely appropriate, but asked the Trust to apologise to her daughter for the insufficient pain relief given to her mother over a 2 day period.

We investigated an incident in which a woman suffered a fractured vertebrae after a fall in hospital.  We found that the Belfast Trust failed to prepare a proper falls assessment for the patient, and failed to fully investigate how the fall happened.

The sister of a man with Downs Syndrome has received an apology from the Belfast Trust following our investigation into his treatment in Belfast City Hospital.

We found that the Belfast Trust stopped a couple’s adoption application without clearly telling them why.  We asked the Trust to apologise, to let the couple make the application again, and to carry out an audit of previous adoption applications to see if others had been affected in the same way.