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

"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.

"We'd been warning everyone," says Laura. "We wrote letters to everyone we could think of saying one of us is going to die."

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 The Independent has 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.

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.

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Source: BBC News, 26 May 2026