After a series of NHS scandals highlighting abuse and failings within mental health wards, the top brass at a North East NHS trust has welcomed greater scrutiny.
Speaking at a board meeting of the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust (CNTW) just hours after the publication of damning reports showing how counterparts at a neighbouring trust had failed three teenage girls in the lead up to their deaths under NHS care, chief executive James Duncan said it was important to "welcome" issues of abuse being highlighted.
He said media reports such as October's Panorama documentary highlighting abuse of patients at the Edenfield mental health ward near Manchester - along with further scrutiny of the failings at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust that led to the deaths of Emily Moore, Nadia Sharif and Christie Harnett - were "a good thing".
