A MENTAL health trust in the region is to help pilot a new national scheme designed to help the NHS learn from mistakes.

The Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust is to become one of 26 specially selected trusts to test out the new system.

The aim is to ensure that lessons from adverse incidents in one area are learnt across the NHS as a whole.

By January 2002, all NHS trusts will report incidents to the new National Patient Safety Agency. The hope is that by removing the blame culture that currently exists and encouraging NHS staff to report near misses or incidents, it will improve patient safety