The family of a devoted NHS nurse who tragically died after entering a river has launched a searing indictment against the health service, claiming she was abandoned by a system riddled with 'systemic neglect'.
Gurpreet Rehal, a 32-year-old mother and respected mental health nurse, was found in the River Wear in County Durham in May 2024. Her death has exposed what her loved ones describe as a catastrophic sequence of failures by the very services she worked for.
A Cry for Help Ignored
In the months leading to her death, Ms. Rehal's mental health severely deteriorated. Her family states they repeatedly raised the alarm with the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV), desperately seeking urgent help.
Despite being a healthcare professional herself and having a known history of mental illness, the response was allegedly woefully inadequate. Her family contends she was failed at every turn, from missed assessments to a lack of crisis intervention.
'We Were Shouted Down and Dismissed'
In a powerful and emotional statement, Ms. Rehal's sister recounted the family's futile attempts to get her the care she needed. 'We were shouted down, dismissed, and treated like we were a nuisance,' she said. They believe that if she had received the appropriate, timely care, her death could have been prevented.
The case has cast a harsh spotlight on the TEWV trust, which is already under intense scrutiny. A recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) report placed the trust in special measures following an inspection that uncovered significant safety concerns across its services.
A Trust in Special Measures
The CQC's damning findings revealed a culture where staff did not always report safety incidents and where risk assessments were not consistently thorough. This environment of 'systemic neglect', as labelled by the family, is now at the centre of the tragedy.
In response to the family's allegations, a spokesperson for the TEWV trust offered condolences and confirmed they are conducting a thorough investigation into the care provided to Ms. Rehal. They emphasised their commitment to working with the family to understand what went wrong.
This heartbreaking story raises urgent questions about the state of mental health provision within the NHS and the support offered to its own staff, who are often on the frontline of a deepening national crisis.
