Belfast health trust let staff systematically abuse patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital for years, a public inquiry found.

The statutory Muckamore Abbey Hospital Inquiry, chaired by Tom Kark KC, published its final report on 18 June 2026 covering December 1999 to June 2021. It found systematic abuse of adults with learning disabilities, serious governance failures by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust that eroded oversight over many years, misuse of seclusion as punishment, overuse of 'as needed' sedation, and external oversight systems that were ineffective at detecting the abuse; it made 106 recommendations.