Hospital bosses missed 14 chances to save the lives of babies by removing Lucy Letby, a newly leaked report has claimed.
Inexperienced NHS managers failed to act and suspend Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital when evidence suggested she was behind the deaths of babies, alleges a new report. It said they “completely ignored” an internal staffing review which showed Letby was working at the neo-natal unit each time children died. Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials at Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.
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Now, a leaked 243-page report by healthcare consultancy Facere Melius reportedly focuses on the deaths of 13 babies and the response by the hospital. An extensive analysis was made of more than 25,000 pages of emails and notes, for the investigation where 34 hospital staff members were spoken to.
The report, leaked to the MailOnline, found that there were 15 times when medics tried to raise concerns, but calls for a review of each death were ‘continually dismissed’ by bosses. It is also claimed that NHS whistleblowing protocols and safeguarding guidelines were flouted, while the hospital board was kept in the dark about the spike in deaths. And the first mistake was made after the first three babies had died in 2015.
A public inquiry is being held into Letby’s crimes and yesterday a barrister for former hospital executives called for it to be halted over a “real possibility” that her convictions are overturned. Senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital at the time of her attack spree on babies at its neonatal unit want the Thirlwall Inquiry to be put on hold until the former nurse’s legal battle to clear her name is resolved.
On Tuesday, their barrister, Kate Blackwell KC, told chairwoman Lady Justice Thirlwall that Letby’s convictions and whole life sentences were the “bedrock” of the inquiry’s terms of reference but that was “in real danger of dissolving into a beach of shifting sands”.
Last month, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists, working pro bono for her defence team, said bad medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths attributed to Letby. Those findings will be passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and the former nurse’s legal team hope her case will eventually be referred back to the Court of Appeal after two previous failed bids.
Letby and the hospital’s former senior executives want a pause to the inquiry until her legal battle to clear her name is resolved. But families of Letby’s victims say that she is continuing to attempt to “control the narrative” in requesting the suspension of the public inquiry.
In response, Richard Baker KC, representing one group of families, said: “The families will say that the applications to stop the inquiry are on Letby’s part an attempt to control the narrative and are on part of the executives to avoid criticism.
“Neither should stand in the way of the important work that you are undertaking. From the moment she faced accusations at the Countess of Chester Hospital, Lucy Letby has cynically tried to change the narrative away from the suspicions levelled against her by pleading for her own victimhood and seeking to recruit others to support her.
“The families have seen nothing different in the approach taken in response to appeals, nothing different in a decision to hold a press conference just before Christmas and nothing different in decisions to hold press conferences during pauses in this inquiry.”
The new leaked report by Facere Melius, obtained by the Mail, reportedly states that babies’ lives could have been saved by action from hospital managers but doesn’t say which.
“Earlier action potentially would have reduced the number of baby deaths,’ the independent report concluded. “Had different decisions been made the spike in baby deaths would have been picked up sooner internally and externally and, potentially, lives could have been saved.”
Dr Susan Gilby, another former chief executive of the hospital who took over from Tony Chambers followingLetby’s arrest, ordered the report entitled Hidden in Plain Sight. She reportedly commissioned consultancy firm Facere Melius in 2019 to investigate the trust’s handling of the Letby allegations and wanted the report published after she was convicted in 2023 but is claimed to have faced resistance.
