A regional mental health NHS trust is due to appear in court following the deaths of three people while under its care.

Officials from the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust are due before Teesside Magistrates’ Court today (Wednesday, May 17) to respond to three alleged breaches of the Health and Social Care Act and what it alleges was “avoidable harm”.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is prosecuting the trust in relation to the treatment teenagers Christie Harnett and Emily Moore received between 2019 and 2020. A third charge in relation to an unnamed personis also alleged. 

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Christie, 17, of Newton Aycliffe, had been receiving treatment at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough when she took her own life on June 27, 2019.

Emily, 18, from Shildon, had been an inpatient at the same hospital until July 2019, before moving to Lanchester Road, Durham in February 2020 but took her own life one week later.  

The third alleged breach relates to an incident at Roseberry Park Hospital in Middlesbrough in 2020. 

It comes after a damning report, released in March, detailed a campaign of alleged bullying and failure to protect patients at the trust before the tragic death of three teenagers.

The independent investigation into concerns around the mental health provision at West Lane Hospital, Middlesbrough described the staff response to self-harm as “negative and punitive”, while some patients were dragged along the floor in an “excessive and inappropriate” form of restraint.

An insufficient leadership structure and lack of support created a care environment which was often described as “chaos”, the report said.