The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is prosecuting Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust over the death of a 17-year-old patient. Christie Harnett took her own life at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough in June 2019. The regulator stated that the trust failed to provide safe care and treatment, exposing the patient to a significant risk of avoidable harm.
West Lane Hospital was closed in 2019 following the deaths of Christie Harnett and another teenager, Nadia Sharif, also 17. A third patient, 18-year-old Emily Moore, died by suicide in February 2020 while under the trust's care. The families of the three teenagers have repeatedly called for a public inquiry into the deaths.
Christie's family welcomed the prosecution but described it as bittersweet. Her stepfather, Michael Harnett, said: 'It's amazing news knowing that the CQC actually think that the trust had failed and needs to be prosecuted. But it makes it sink in even more just how bad it was.' Her grandmother, Casey Tremain, added: 'Christie is dead because we weren't heard, we weren't listened to.'
The CQC confirmed that it had concluded the threshold for prosecution was met and that action was necessary in the public interest. The trust said it had fully cooperated with the investigation and had made significant changes in personnel and treatment approaches. The unit has since been renamed Acklam Road Hospital and is now run by a different NHS trust.
