THE high quality of care provided by a Teesside NHS trust has been praised by the Mental Health Act Commission.

It comes in a recent report published about the latest inspection of forensic mental health services provided by St Luke's Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

The Mental Health Act Commission makes regular planned and unplanned visits to hospitals all over the country.

When inspectors visited in September, they interviewed 19 patients and had contact with a further 44 to gauge their views on the service.

The report said: "Contrary to the problems encountered by many other hospitals, we were pleased to hear that nurse staffing levels remained high and the trust was currently experiencing few problems in recruiting staff of a high calibre.

"Hopefully, that healthy situation will continue and credit must be given both to the trust and those staff in post for the quality of the service that is provided and that the majority of patients commented favourably about their care."