During the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC revealed that senior paediatricians had warned the hospital about Lucy Letby and expressed strong concerns that she should not have continued access to patients, but these warnings were not acted upon. Langdale also highlighted the delay in involving the police in the case, with the first mention of police involvement in July 2016 but no action taken until a year later. The inquiry aims to investigate missed opportunities to stop Letby, including dismissing warnings from consultants and failing to consider similar incidents when looking at the pattern of deaths in the neonatal unit. It was also revealed that Letby may have used the grievance process at the hospital to evade scrutiny, raising concerns about the hospital’s handling of the situation.
Lucy Letby: hospital did not act on senior paediatricians’ warning about Letby, inquiry hears – as it happened | Lucy Letby
Hospital did not act on senior paediatricians’ warning about Letby, inquiry hears
Rachel Langdale KC has read out an email from Dr Brearey in which he conveyed in strong terms that the senior paediatricians did not believe Lucy Letby should have continued access to patients. This was again not acted on upon by the hospital.
Langdale is also saying the inquiry will be investigating why the first mention of involving the police in the case was in July 2016, but no action was taken to do so until a year later.
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Updated at 14.52 BST
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Summary of the day …
Comments on the validity of Lucy Letby’s convictions for murder and attempted murder have created “an enormous amount of stress” for the parents of her victims, Lady Justice Thirlwall has said on the opening day of a public inquiry into events surrounding the deaths
Thirlwall said the inquiry bore her name to avoid the bereaved parents having to repeatedly see the name of the person convicted of killing and harming their infants. “It is not for me to set about reviewing the convictions,” she said, adding “The court of appeal has done that with a very clear result”
Rachel Langdale KC, counsel to the inquiry, has said that the purpose of it is “keeping babies safe in future from a healthcare professional who seeks to harm them”
The inquiry has already heard of what are now considered missed opportunities to have halted Letby, with warnings by a senior consultant dismissed, and a failure to take into account similar near fatal collapses when looking at the pattern of deaths in the neonatal unit
The inquiry was told it was a year between the first mention of maybe involving police and them being contacted over Letby. For months it seemed like the hospital was treating the situation like a HR issue rather than a potential criminal case
Langdale suggested that Letby had utilised the grievance process at the hospital in order to evade scrutiny
Counsel to the inquiry also said it was of “considerable concern” to the inquiry that evidence given to it suggests that a report by Dr Hawdon sent to the senior hospital management may have been altered after it was written, but before it was sent to them
The inquiry at Liverpool town hall will examine events at the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit where Letby was a nurse between 2015 and 2016. The 34-year-old, was sentenced to 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted across two trials of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others
It will cover three broad areas: the experiences of the parents of the babies who featured on the criminal indictment that Letby faced, the conduct of those working at the Countess of Chester and how Letby was allowed to repeatedly kill, and the wider NHS culture and governance
The inquiry resumes tomorrow at 10am
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Rachel Langdale KC has finished the session for the day by asking a long series of questions that the inquiry will have to consider about the grievance process used by Lucy Letby and the whistleblowing procedures in place in Countess of Chester hospital.
In particular she asks whether undue pressure was applied to consultants who had raised issues about Letby, including the suggestion complaints might in turn be made about them to the GMC. Langdale also asked whether the person running the process – a nurse from a neighbouring trust – was truly independent and empowered to carry out an independent investigation.
She also questioned why so little legal advice was taken during the process, and why the advice that was taken appears to have been commissioned by the HR department on an ad hoc basis rather than by the legal department.
Langdale ended by asking the inquiry whether the evidence in fact reveals what she called an “abject failure” by those investigating the case to engage with the most basic safeguarding requirements and the need to keep babies in the care of the hospital safe.
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In a lengthy section Rachel Langdale KC has been outlining how Lucy Letby received professional help in setting out her grievance against being taken away from duties on the neonatal ward, and that she felt she had been told she could not socialise normally with colleagues.
Langdale says later oral testimony at the inquiry will explore this process, and how it came to be that when there was a meeting over the case Letby appears to have been left unaware that there were external reviews being carried out.
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The Thirlwall inquiry has beed told by Rachel Langdale KC that she will now talk about whistleblowing in the NHS. She says the inquiry will investigate whether the Countess of Chester hospital was implementing its stated whistleblowing policy.
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Rachel Langdale KC has suggested that it may have just been “chance” that prevented Lucy Letby having more access to babies after she was removed from duty. Langdale reminded the inquiry that it was originally the plan that Letby should be “supervised” on the ward, but due to staffing issues this did not happen. Langdale said it was only the vociferous lobbying of the consultant paediatricians that continued to advocate for being kept out of the direct care of children.
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In a strong use of language, the Thirlwall inquiry has heard that Karen Rees, head of nursing, described it as “immoral” that Lucy Letby was not being allowed to work directly with patients during this period.
She appears to have suggested that any concerns about Letby were based on “gut feeling” from the senior paediatricians and not evidence, and that “this allegation against Letby is massive and if anyone is of this belief then why have the police not been called?”
One issue for the inquiry to examine is that it appeared a decision had been made to return Letby to duties in the neonatal unit in January 2017 before the external investigations into the unit were completed.
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At the Thirlwall inquiry, counsel Rachel Langdale KC has picked up that senior management at the hospital at some point seemed anxious to “draw a line” under allegations against Lucy Letby.
The trust’s chief executive, Tony Chambers, has said in his evidence, the inquiry heard, that he does not recall being “emphatic” about it, but it also appears that he said Letby had been “exonerated” when her grievance was partially upheld.
Langdale stressed to the inquiry that the grievance process had not involved any investigation of Letby’s actions.
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We have reached the point in the timeline when Lucy Letby raised a grievance against her treatment. It was partially upheld and as a result consultants who had raised questions about her were told they needed to apologise to her.
“The abuse of a greivance process to evade scrutiny is,” Rachel Langdale KC says, “something that an organisation must be able to recognise”. She said the inquiry has seen evidence that suggests the grievance began to dominate the thinking of management.
The inquiry is breaking for 15 minutes and will start again at 3pm BST.
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Rachel Langdale KC has flagged up that it is of “considerable concern” to the inquiry that evidence given to it suggests that a report by Dr Hawdon sent to the senior hospital management may have been altered after it was written but before it was sent to them.
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The upshot of this section of Rachel Langdale KC’s opening statement at the Thirlwall inquiry is that for months it appeared that the hospital was treating Lucy Letby and whether she should be allowed direct contact with patients as a HR issue, attempting to manage her return to work in the neonatal unit in a “supportive” environment, rather than escalating the suspicion around her to the police.
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Read the full story on www.theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2024/sep/10/thirlwall-inquiry-lucy-letby-countess-of-chester-hospital-latest-updates