NHS officials ‘will learn lessons’

SENIOR NHS officials have stressed that “lessons will be learnt” after the deaths of the two patients as St James’s Hospital in Leeds.

Yvette Oade, the chief medical officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We believe it is very important to the families involved in this case that we show we have learned lessons from these tragic circumstances and that we ensure the care we provide is safe and effective,” she said.

However, Sarah Munro, the chief executive of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust, which provides mental healthcare at St James’s, said staff could have predicted the incident, citing the use of “extensive research” on the risks posed by patients with mental health issues.