Northern Health and Social Care Trust
The Northern Trust failed to develop an appropriate plan for managing a patient’s incontinence during his stay in Causeway Hospital.
Source · Ombudsman decisions
NIPSO Individual Decisions
457 total decisions
192 investigated
139 upheld
72% upheld of investigated
Years: Jul 2000–Mar 2026
457 published decisions from the NI Public Services Ombudsman. The Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman investigates complaints about NI government departments, agencies, councils, and public bodies. Source: nipso.org.uk.
Decisions
Cairnmartin Care Home
A care home could have understood the reasons for a resident’s weight loss if it had followed through on its referral to a dietitian.
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
The Belfast Trust should have arranged for an earlier CT scan and carried out emergency bowel surgery when a patient’s condition deteriorated.
Western Health and Social Care Trust
We found failings in the way the Trust investigated a man's concerns about how his father was treated in a care home.
Northern Health and Social Care Trust
The care provided to a patient who attended the Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital with abdominal pain was reasonable and appropriate.
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
The Belfast Trust should have given a new mother better mental health support to help her cope with the premature birth of her twins.
Department for Communities
The Department for Communities carried out an unbiased investigation into a man’s concerns about the use of his son’s benefit payments.
Fermanagh and Omagh District Council
Fermanagh and Omagh District Council followed procedures when it approved a planning application for a property.
Southern Health and Social Care Trust
A care home did not follow contemporary guidance on allowing visitors over a 5-day period in March 2020.
GP
A decision by a medical practice to stop prescribing a patient’s medication was appropriate.
Southern Health and Social Care Trust
The Southern Trust should have kept an elderly patient in hospital for further observation, but our investigation found that the failings did not contribute to his death.
Southern Health and Social Care Trust
The Southern Trust failed to appropriately triage a referral from a patient's GP. It also did not tell the patient or her GP of its decision to downgrade the referral from urgent to routine.
South Eastern Health and Social Trust
A decision by South Eastern Trust Prison Healthcare not to prescribe a patient medicinal cannabis was in line with the guidance.
GP
A GP practice followed procedure when withdrawing a man’s medication but failed to properly answer his questions when he made a complaint.
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council failed to keep a charity updated on the status of its complaint.
Northern Health and Social Care Trust
The Northern Trust should not have left it to the day of the surgery to explain to a patient the potential complications. The patient said that if she had known the possible consequences she would not have given her consent.
Northern Health and Social Care Trust
An elderly patient experienced distress and discomfort after being left overnight in soiled clothing in Antrim Area Hospital.
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
The Belfast Trust did not provide appropriate reassurance to an elderly patient when she suffered pain and discomfort after her coronary angiogram.
Western Health and Social Care Trust
A woman complained that her late sister should have received better care on the night she was admitted to hospital. We found that, for the most part, her treatment was appropriate.
Southern Health and Social Care Trust
The Southern Trust followed the appropriate procedures when it worked out a resident’s contribution to the cost of her care.
Northern Health and Social Care Trust
Antrim Area Hospital discharged a patient from its Emergency Department despite his poor health. His daughter believed he should have been admitted to the hospital for further treatment.
Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council
Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council failed to properly respond to a man’s concerns when he complained about odours coming from his neighbour’s house.
Western Health and Social Care Trust
The Western Trust’s failure to give a patient an MRI test caused her to experience prolonged pain and unnecessarily delayed treatment of her endometriosis.
South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust
A man said a hospital should not have discharged him without doing further tests on a cyst on his brain. We found he was treated appropriately.
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
A woman complained that her IVF treatment failed because the Belfast Trust’s fertility clinic failed to monitor her progesterone levels. Our investigation did not identify any failings.