Investigation reports

A woman whose husband was in significant pain and was feeling suicidal said he shouldn’t have been discharged from hospital.

We found that the Western Health Trust should have diagnosed a patient at an earlier stage, given his symptoms, test results, and observations.

We asked the Western Health Trust to reflect on what it might have done differently in the treatment of an elderly patient in Altnagelvin Hospital.

An investigation into complaints about the end of life care received by a man in the South West Acute Hospital has found that he was treated appropriately by medical staff.

We found that a patient who was showing signs of sepsis should have been referred to a senior clinician in Altnagelvin Hospital. We asked for the Trust to apologise to the complainant, and that it raises awareness of sepsis among junior doctors.

We found that although a cancer patient’s treatment plan was in line with relevant standards, the Altnagelvin Hospital failed to keep proper records relating to her care, including losing a number of key medical documents.  We also asked it to apologise to the patient’s daughter over the way it responded to queries about her mother’s care.

A complainant raised concerns about the Trust removing her diagnosis of PTSD.  We found that the Trust’s actions were appropriate.

We asked the Western Health and Social Care Trust to use the newly appointed Learning Disability Liaison Nurse to ensure that appropriate training is provided to staff who care for patients with disabilities. We also recommended it develop an online information resource for staff to help them care for other vulnerable adults.

We found a number of failures in our investigation into the Trust's care of a nursing home patient.