West Park, Darlington: Woman claims staff were 'bullying and mocking'

Jessica Robson, 27, from Darlington, spent time in the town’s West Park hospital between 2015 and 2017, and was sectioned again in 2022.

Jessica’s account follows criticism of Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS foundation trust (TEWV), which runs mental health and learning disability services in County Durham and Darlington.

Last month, a damning report into the mental health provision at a different hospital previously run by TEWV was released, finding some areas of care to be “ultimately damaging to patients.”

Jessica Robson had stays at West Park between 2015 and 2017, and again in 2022. (Image: Handout)

Read more: Family claim West Park hospital, Darlington, was 'compassionless'

Only weeks ago, The Northern Echo reported on the death of Matthew Gale, a patient at West Park Hospital who took his own life on Mothers’ Day after a years-long battle with his mental health. Matthew’s family believe that “compassionless” care at West Park ultimately led to his death.

The Northern Echo has since been contacted by a number of people to speak of their experiences at the hospital.

Jessica’s allegations against the hospital include that they ignored domestic abuse perpetrated by her partner, that they would mock and bully patients, that she was told she did not “look sick enough” when in crisis, and that lax care meant she barely saw the medical staff.

But TEWV responded to Jessica’s claims, saying that they have “an unrelenting focus on safety and quality”, and have made several significant improvements to their service since Jessica’s first visit seven years ago.

Jessica claims that as recently as last autumn she was told by the hospital’s crisis team that she “did not look depressed enough or like [she] had an eating disorder”.

Read more: 'Failures' exposed at West Lane Hospital before deaths of three girls

Additionally, Jessica alleges that the crisis team told her that her behaviour was “attention seeking”, rather than caused genuine mental distress, despite three historic attempts to take her own life.

She said: “I went to them for help, and they essentially turned round and told me ‘you don’t look depressed or look like you have an eating disorder’.

“I was treated like I was attention seeking, or faking it, or that I was just paranoid. It’s like [the staff] are always having a bad day, and they just don’t want to deal with you.”

According to Jessica, throughout her various stays at West Park, nurses would “mock and bully patients whilst sat in their office.”

West Park Hospital, located on Edward Pease way in Darlington, is managed by the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

Read more: Andy McDonald MP's inquiry call into Tees, Esk and Wear Valley Trust

She said: “You would walk past their office, and they’d be ripping into patients. There was just a total lack of empathy and respect; the staff would treat you like you were below them.

“They’d taunt and intimidate patients too – it was absolutely vile.

“Being in West Park was actively damaging my mental health.”

In addition to “bullying and taunting”, Ms Robson alleges that the care she was given was “barely there.”

She claims that, during a 28-day-long stay in the hospital, she only saw a doctor once, despite being sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983.

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“I barely saw medical staff, and when I did, they would never properly listen to me. They prescribed me medication that I had already had a negative reaction to, even though I told them that it gave me a bad reaction.”

Jessica claims that even when crying out for help, she was ignored by staff.

She told staff that she had suffered previous domestic abuse, but claims they did nothing to safeguard her. 

For Jessica, there were also issues with how staff dealt with patients whilst they were in distress.

“Restraint was always used as the first resort.

“You would feel like you were being punished for having a breakdown – we’d be screaming and crying that we wanted to die and no one would care.

“The only time anyone paid me any attention during a breakdown was when I peeled a bit of cardboard off of the wall and they made me pay for it.”

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Despite suffering from an eating disorder, Jessica told The Northern Echo she was able to sneak food out of windows to stop eating in – leading to her losing weight whilst in hospital.

She also believes that others were able to sneak drugs and weapons for self-harm onto the ward due to minimal searches when admitting new patients.

Patrick Scott, managing director of the Durham, Tees Valley and Forensics care group at TEWV said:

“We are really sorry that Jessica didn’t receive the level of care that she expected from us.

“We have an unrelenting focus on safety and quality in our Trust. Since Jessica was at West Park Hospital seven years ago, we have made significant improvements, including:

• employing two lived experience directors, to make sure that experienced voices are heard at all levels of the organisation
• introducing 28 peer support workers, who use their experiences to support other people and their families receiving mental health services
• investing in education and training, including human rights training, which has seen a significant reduction in the use of physical intervention on our wards
• nearly £8 million spent on making our wards safer since 2019

“Although we can’t comment on specific claims, we listen and act on the voices of the people we support, their families and carers. This helps us provide a better experience of high-quality, safe and compassionate care.

“We welcome the opportunity to talk to Jessica about her experience in more detail.”