'We knew somebody would die': Teenage patients 'ignored' before fatal NHS trust failures

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. 'We knew somebody would die': Teenage patients 'ignored' before fatal NHS trust failures11 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleDominic Hughes ,Health correspondentandLesley Hitchen ,Health producerBBCLaura Kenny has disturbing memories of the years she spent at a Middlesbrough mental health unit "We knew somebody would die… and nobody listened. "Laura Kenny is remembering her friend Christie Harnett. Both were patients at a mental health unit in Middlesbrough when Christie took her own life.

Laura says she and other patients had expressed worries about their treatment at the unit - later described in an independent report as "chaotic and unsafe" - but she says nobody listened. Warning: This article contains distressing details and references to suicide and self-harm"We'd been warning everyone," says Laura. "We wrote letters to everyone we could think of saying one of us is going to die.

The Details

"In fact, 17-year-old Christie was one of three young women who, within a few months of each other, took their own lives while patients in hospitals run by the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) - which covers the whole of North Yorkshire, County Durham and Teesside. In recent weeks we have spoken to more than a dozen former patients, admitted as young people or as adults, who say they experienced failures in the standard of care at TEWV. We have also met the families of some of those who died away from hospital, but still under the trust's care.

Nathan Evison was 19 when he killed himself in 2019 and Laurent McNamara died last year. All have similar stories - describing a lack of compassion among staff and an absence of any meaningful treatment or therapy. Many fear mistakes are still being made.

Family handoutThe circumstances around Christie's death are still to be determined by a coronerThose we spoke to, and hundreds more, pushed for a public inquiry. One was announced last December, but families and patients are disappointed by delays in setting it up. Despite having been promised answers by the end of February, they say a meeting on 31 March with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) left them no nearer to knowing who might lead the investigation, when it might start and where it might be held.

"While our clients appreciate these things take time, they are worried about the continued care being offered by a trust under scrutiny and how, in three months, there appears to be no firm developments," Alistair Smith, from Ison Harrison Solicitors told the . The DHSC says it is working "at pace" to confirm who should chair the inquiry. "We are committed to ensuring the voices of patients and the families affected by failures are at the heart of this inquiry," said a spokesperson in a statement to the .

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.