The Government will make a decision "in the coming days" as to whether to hold a public inquiry into mental health failings after investigations found three teenage girls died following "multifaceted and systematic" failures at a North East mental health trust.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, health minister Maria Caulfield also apologised to the families of Emily Moore, 18, Christie Harnett, 17, and Nadia Sharif, also 17. The three girls all died between June 2019 and February 2020 and had been inpatients at West Lane Hospital under the care of the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust (TEWV).
The minister said three independent reports published this week and laying bare the litany of failings which led to each girl's death made "painful reading", Teesside Live reports. She described the tragic incidents as "completely unacceptable".
Read more: North East teens tragically took their own lives after 'appalling' NHS mental health care
Ms Caulfield told MPs that a decision on how the Government will respond is to be made imminently. She said there was a need to ensure the "same failings" are not happening in other parts of the country. The Government has not ruled out a public inquiry but has said it will need to be on a national basis.
Christie, Nadia and Emily were all diagnosed with complex mental health needs and had been patients at West Lane. It was at the hospital in Acklam Road, Middlesbrough that Christie, of Newton Aycliffe, and Nadia, who grew up in Middlesbrough, took their own lives just six weeks apart in June and August 2019.
Less than a year later Emily died after she was found unresponsive in Lanchester Road Hospital, Durham, in an adult ward where she was moved to just 11 days earlier in February 2020. She had just turned 18.
Responding to an urgent question from Labour, Ms Caulfield told the House of Commons: "I want to apologise for the failings in the care that they received." She said she, alongside Health Secretary Steve Barclay, are "working closely" with NHS England and the Care Quality Commission to monitor improvements at the NHS Trust - which include investing £5million in reducing ligature risks on wards and changes to how care plans are developed and implemented.
Ms Caulfield highlighted "other recent scandals" in mental health care, adding: "I am not satisfied that the failings we've heard about today are necessarily isolated incidents at a handful of trusts. Myself and the Secretary of State are urgently meeting the national director of mental health to look at the system as a whole, to look at the role of the CQC inspections and the system for flagging concerns.
"I will also be meeting the new patient safety commissioner to seek her guidance too and, based on that, will make a decision on how we proceed in the coming days."
Ms Caulfield said NHS England has commissioned a "system-wide investigation into the safety and quality of services across the board", particularly in relation to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
She added: "On the issue of a public inquiry, I am not necessarily saying there won't be a public inquiry but it needs to be on a national basis and not just on an individual trust basis because, as we've seen in maternity, very often when we repeat these inquiries, they produce the same information and we need to learn systemically about how to reduce these failings.
"The issue I have with a public inquiry is they're not timely, they can take many years, and we've clearly got some cases now which need some urgent review and some urgent action. So I will look at her request, but I am taking urgent advice - as is the Secretary of State - because we take this extremely seriously and one death from a failing of care is one death too many."
Sedgefield MP Paul Howell (Conservative) read out testimony from the Harnett family, saying: "It is emotional this, but Christie's family in their statement in the report, their description of Christie was that 'family was everything to Christie and we all miss her so much, nothing will ever be the same again now that our sunshine has gone'."
Mr Howell added: "It is imperative that we do all that we can to give the families of these young ladies what little satisfaction can be delivered by a proper and full inquiry into these atrocious failings."
Responding, the minister said: "My concern about a public inquiry is the time that these inquiries take and whether a rapid review would be more appropriate. I will make that decision in the coming days once advice has been taken."
For Labour, shadow mental health minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan earlier asked the Government to conduct a "rapid review" and warned: "In the last five weeks, there have been reports on the Huntercombe Group, Essex Partnership University Trust and the Edenfield Centre.
"Why do undercover reporters seem to have a better grip on the crisis than the Government? Patients are dying, being bullied, dehumanised, abused and their medical records are being falsified - a scandalous breach of patient safety. The Government has failed to learn from past failings."
READ NEXT:
- North East NHS boss reacts to mental health scandals and says exposing failings 'is a good thing'
- MP raises tragic case of Charley-Ann Patterson in Westminster calling for mental health care within month
- Daughter's anger after Gateshead dementia patient sent home from hospital - and even had the locks on her front door forced
- Abortion rights groups in Newcastle welcome plans for 'buffer zones' to block protesters outside of clinics
- Charlie, four, travels 250 miles to Newcastle to take part in life-changing muscular dystrophy trial
