Months of doctor concerns regarding Lucy Letby were disregarded by hospital administrators

According to the lead consultant at the neonatal unit where Lucy Letby worked, hospital administrators attempted to intimidate doctors while failing to look into the complaints against her.

Despite months of concerns that the nurse might have been killing babies, the hospital likewise took its time in notifying the authorities.

Letby’s concerns were originally voiced in October 2015 by the unit’s head consultant, Dr. Stephen Brearey.

She proceeded to attack five more babies, killing two of them, with no action being taken.

In a neonatal section at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire, Letby killed seven infants and tried to kill six more. He was convicted guilty of both crimes.

The initial five murders took place between June and October 2015, and despite numerous warnings, the final two occurred in June 2016.

BBC Panorama and BBC News have been looking into how Letby was able to kill and injure so many babies for such a long time.

Our primary consultant in the unit, who was the one to first voice concerns about Letby, was interviewed, and we also looked through hospital records. The study uncovers a long list of mistakes and raises important concerns about the hospital’s response to the fatalities.

Following the final two murders in June 2016, Dr. Brearey claims he urged that Letby be removed from duty. Initially refusing was the hospital administration.

The BBC’s investigation also revealed:

The situation, however, had changed by October 2015. Letby had worked shifts for both of the deaths of two further infants.

Dr. Brearey was starting to worry Letby was hurting the infants by this stage. Eirian Powell, the unit manager, wasn’t responsive when he reached out to her once more.

She called the link between Letby and the unanticipated newborn deaths in an email dated October 2015 as “unfortunate.” The link to Letby was only a coincidence, she claimed, adding that each cause of death was distinct.

Senior management didn’t seem concerned. Dr. Brearey claims he voiced his worries about Letby to Alison Kelly, director of nursing, in the same month—October 2015—and she responded. However, he received no reply.

Also concerned about Letby were Dr. Brearey’s fellow experts. Furthermore, it wasn’t only the unanticipated deaths. Without any obvious clinical cause, other infants were collapsing non-fatally and necessitating emergency resuscitation or assistance breathing. Letby never left his shift.

In February 2016, when an infant, known as infant K, appeared to have stopped breathing, another consultant, Dr. Ravi Jayaram, claims to have seen Letby standing and watching.

To arrange a quick meeting, Dr. Brearey spoke with Alison Kelly and Ian Harvey, the hospital’s medical director. We still need to talk about Lucy, he added in an early March letter to Eirian Powell.

BBC