Press releases

A woman died from an operable brain tumour after doctors failed to properly monitor her scan results, an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has found. May Ashford, who lived near Blackpool, was diagnosed with a brain...

The Foreign Office failed to notice a UK academic might have been tortured when its staff visited him while in detention in Abu Dhabi, the UK’s national Ombudsman has found. Matthew Hedges had travelled to the United Arab Emirates to...

An 81-year-old grandfather died while on holiday in England after medics failed to recognise he had suffered a stroke. David Harding had travelled to England from Australia with his wife and daughter for the first time in five years to...

The National Health Service is suffering from a deficit of accountability and compassion for patients and their families when things go wrong, England’s Health Ombudsman has warned. In a new report, ‘ Broken trust: making patient safety more than just...

Doctors failed to diagnose a woman’s colon cancer for a year despite her having ‘red flag’ symptoms. In May 2019, Charlie Puplett, 45, began raising concerns with her GP surgery in Yeovil about unexplained weight loss, lack of appetite, change...

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Rob Behrens has announced his immediate resignation from the European Ombudsman Institute (EOI) following revelations that its Secretary General, Dr Josef Siegele, aided the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from Austria to Russia. Dmytro Lubinets...

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) welcomes the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ agreement that there should not be a new human rights Ombudsman service in the UK. In today’s report, the Committee states that PHSO and the Local...

Too many women and babies are being put at risk as expectant and new parents are repeatedly ‘failed’ by maternity services, according to England’s Health Ombudsman. In a new report, the Ombudsman warns that despite a number of major reviews...

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) Rob Behrens is in Stockton-on-Tees from Monday 20 to Tuesday 21 March for the first of a series of regional roadshows around the country to directly hear about issues facing members of the local...

The UK’s Health Ombudsman has warned that people with eating disorders are being repeatedly failed by the system and radical changes need to be made to prevent further tragedies. Little progress has been made in the six years since the...