Junior docs have been referring to Lucy Letby as “nurse loss of life” as early as 2016, two years earlier than she was arrested, a public inquiry has heard.
Letby, 34, was sentenced to fifteen whole-life orders after she was convicted throughout two trials of murdering seven infants and making an attempt to homicide seven others.
The inquiry led by Woman Justice Thirlwall at Liverpool city corridor will look at occasions on the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit, the place Letby was a nurse between 2015 and 2016. Letby was first arrested in 2018 and convicted in 2023 and 2024.
On Wednesday, the inquiry heard opening statements on behalf of the counsel to the inquiry delivered by Nicholas de la Poer KC.
In September 2016, the Royal Faculty of Paediatrics and Baby Well being have been invited to conduct a evaluate of the neonatal unit, throughout which they interviewed hospital employees together with Ian Harvey, the then medical director, and Alison Kelly, the then director of nursing and high quality.
De la Poer mentioned in his interview, Harvey was famous as saying: “… needed to intervene with the neonatal lead as junior docs had been referring to her as ‘nurse loss of life’”.
Harvey additionally mentioned the “correlation of 1 nurse” was seen as an “elephant within the room” by paediatricians.
Earlier, De la Poer instructed the inquiry that Letby tried to homicide baby Okay whereas Care High quality Fee inspectors have been conducting an inspection within the hospital.
He mentioned the CQC regulator “didn’t detect previous to or throughout the inspection the issues on the neonatal unit”.
The CQC inspected the belief in February 2016, and through unannounced visits on 26 February and 4 March 2016.
The inquiry heard that not less than one physician instructed an inspector “we’ve got some severe affected person security issues and don’t really feel like we’re being listened to” – however this was ignored and the inspectors left earlier than there was time to broaden upon issues.
“It’s notable that Letby tried to homicide Baby Okay within the early hours of 17 February 2016, the second day of the inspection,” De la Poer mentioned.
Letby was convicted of tried homicide of Baby Okay after a retrial, as on the earlier trial jurors couldn’t attain a verdict.
Earlier the inquiry heard that the hospital belief first characterised issues over a excessive mortality fee on he neonatal unit the place Letby labored as a threat to “reputational hurt” slightly than a menace to the security of the infants.
Turning to problems with governance on the hospital, De la Poer mentioned the inquiry had recognized that issues concerning the mortality fee in neonatal unit have been referred to within the July 2016 “pressing care threat register”.
“Nevertheless, the chance was characterised as ‘potential injury to status of the neonatal service and wider belief because of obvious elevated mortality throughout the neonatal unit’,” De la Poer mentioned. “The chance was characterised when it comes to reputational hurt, slightly than when it comes to a threat to the security of infants.”
De la Poer mentioned it was noteworthy that the chance was “solely added in July 2016”, six months after a evaluate had recognized a higher-than-expected mortality fee within the neonatal unit in 2015.
De la Poer defined that the rise in neonatal mortality on the hospital and the issues about Letby have been issues that fell squarely throughout the remit of the standard, security and affected person expertise committee (QSPEC).
“A seemingly putting characteristic of QSPEC’s month-to-month conferences throughout the interval [between] June 2015 and June 2016 is that the rise within the mortality fee on the neonatal unit was mentioned simply as soon as,” he mentioned.
Earlier, the inquiry heard that in Might 2016 a “threat midwife” named Annemarie Lawrence requested a replica of the evaluate of neonatal mortality evaluate and – going by way of the desk utilizing a highlighter – recognized that Letby was a typical issue within the case of many of the deaths.
Lawrence took her findings to her boss, Ruth Millward, the top of threat and security, however discovered Millward to be “dismissive of her findings”, De la Poer mentioned.
Discussing the hospital board, the KC mentioned that “within the interval June 2015 to March 2017, no board committee ever escalated to the board points regarding neonatal mortality or Letby”.
On the opening day of the inquiry on Tuesday, Thirlwall mentioned feedback on the validity of Letby’s convictions had created a “noise that triggered an unlimited quantity of stress” for the dad and mom of the victims and had come from individuals who weren’t on the trial.
It heard that Letby launched a grievance process in September 2017 over her elimination from duties amid issues about excessive toddler mortality, which was resolved in her favour a number of months later.
The counsel to the inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC, mentioned a deliberate return to the neonatal unit was then solely stopped by the “tenacious lobbying of the consultants”. “However for his or her decided method, it seems seemingly that she would have been permitted to return to coping with infants,” Langdale mentioned.
The inquiry continues.
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