Investigation reports

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 a Learning Disability Liaison Nurse to provide training 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.

We found that the Trust failed to follow any multidisciplinary assessments when it assessed a patient for  Continuing Healthcare.

We investigated a complaint from a man who said that his mother should not have been sent from hospital back to her care home.  We found that her care was appropriate, but following our investigation the Trust agreed to review the way it documents patients returning to nursing homes or other care settings.