A man said his autistic son’s health deteriorated because the Western Trust did not properly address his needs. Our investigation found that the Trust failed to provide a reasonable level of care and support to both the boy and his family over a 21-year period.
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.
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.
We found that failures in the care and treatment of a patient by a GP Practice had no impact on the prognosis or outcome, but had they not occurred it may have been possible for the patient to have received an earlier diagnosis.