UK inquiry: three babies could have survived with timely hospital response
A public inquiry in the United Kingdom has concluded that three babies might have survived and another seven might have avoided harm if the management and staff at the Countess of Chester Hospital had responded earlier to concerns about neonatal nurse Lucy Letby. As The Guardian reports, the inquiry chaired by Lady Justice Thirlwall found a “complete failure” to protect babies in the neonatal unit of the hospital in north-west England.
The 822-page report states that if Letby had been removed from work in the unit earlier, two newborn twins would not have died and another five children would not have suffered harm. The inquiry also considers it possible that three more babies could have been protected if a doctor had identified an insulin poisoning case in the unit earlier.
Delay in responding
Letby began working at the Countess of Chester Hospital after university in 2012. She was first linked to the deaths of babies in June 2015, when three children died under unexplained circumstances in less than two weeks. This was the number of deaths normally expected in the unit over a year.
Senior doctors subsequently raised concerns with management about Letby’s connection to an unusual increase in deaths and serious incidents. At the same time, senior nurses effectively dismissed these concerns, and a referral to the police was delayed for a long time, the inquiry found. The risk and patient safety department took no action until the end of June 2016, when two twin boys died unexpectedly.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Thirlwall said that the delay in referring the matter to police until April 2017 — almost two years after the rise in unexplained deaths — indicated that the hospital’s reputation was valued above doctors’ concerns. Parents, the inquiry concluded, were not informed for years about circumstances related to their children’s deaths and suspicions of deliberate harm.
Recommendations for the NHS
The report recommends wide-ranging changes in the UK’s National Health Service, including the installation of cameras operating around the clock beside every cot in neonatal units, as well as stronger oversight by the Care Quality Commission regulator. Thirlwall expressed doubts that ministers would implement the recommendations following the abolition of NHS England and amid a lack of clarity over the body responsible for their implementation.
Letby, 36, is serving 15 life sentences without the possibility of release after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another seven children at the hospital during the year leading up to June 2016. She denies guilt and is seeking to challenge the convictions. The Court of Appeal has rejected her applications twice, while the Criminal Cases Review Commission is considering expert materials submitted on her behalf.
