After this hospital horror story, nothing less than a full public inquiry into Lucy Letby scandal will do
THE crimes of child killer Lucy Letby are among the most depraved in the darkest annals of British history.
Her image has become the personification of evil. Her very name is synonymous with monstrous cruelty.
Her sadism is all the more shocking not just because of her role as a nurse, employed to preserve life rather than destroy it, but also because of the spectacular failings of management at her hospital to bring her murderous reign to an end.
Alarmed at the number of babies dying inexplicably at the neonatal unit in the Countess of Chester hospital when Letby was on duty, several doctors had raised serious concerns about her conduct.
Yet far from taking action to investigate, top officials appear to have launched a full-blooded attack on these doctors.
More determined to protect the image of the hospital than the lives of vulnerable children, executives dismissed pleas to have Letby removed from the unit, refused to bring in the police — and reportedly made threats to the doctors about potential damage to their careers if they did not drop their complaints.
In January 2017, Chief Executive Tony Chambers — who is estimated to have been on a salary of £160,000, along with a pension pot worth more than £1million — reportedly told one clinician: “I am drawing a line under this and if you cross that line, there will be consequences for you.”
So twisted were the priorities of the management that Letby was treated as a victim, in need of support rather than a criminal investigation.
As a result, she was offered weekly welfare meetings, help with a master’s degree and even the possibility of promotion to the renowned Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool.
The mollycoddling of this mass murderer was accompanied by continuing humiliation of doctors connected to the neonatal unit.
They were forced to write a pathetic letter of apology to her, expressing regret at having caused her stress, and to attend mediation sessions with her, activities that can have only emboldened Letby towards greater depths of barbarity.
What emerged was a picture of a hospital where several of the senior bureaucrats appear to have lost all sense of morality and decency.
Short on real compassion and long on fashionable management speak, they seem to have been fixated with maintaining the hospital’s reputation — so much so that Dr Stephen Brearey, lead consultant at the unit, has accused them of a cover-up.
Tony Chambers and other senior figures — like £175,000 medical director Ian Harvey who has now retired to France — deny such charges and claim to have acted appropriately.
Indeed, Chambers asserts that patient safety was his paramount concern, while his overall approach was “open and inclusive.”
But, given the horror story that unfolded at the Countess of Chester hospital, such assertions cannot be taken at face value. They have to be tested in the sternest crucible of searching analysis.
In practice, that means a full, statutory public inquiry must be held into the Letby killings. Nothing less will do.
The relatives of the tragic victims, the wider NHS workforce and the British public are all crying out for answers.
Given the nightmarish scale of this episode, no stone can be left unturned in the quest for the truth. Only by a statutory inquiry will key figures — like Chambers and Harvey — be forced to give evidence on oath.
There has been quite enough deceit, dishonesty and distraction already.
The relatives will only achieve closure if they begin to understand what really happened, no matter how painful, while the same burning torch of truth will inform the drive for change in the NHS.
There are also questions over the role of Karen Rees, head of nursing for urgent care, and Alison Kelly, director of nursing, who both allegedly failed to act on doctors’ concerns.
Ms Kelly has been suspended from her current job and Ms Rees has strongly denied the claims.
Yet the Government has not yet confirmed the inquiry will be a statutory one.
These probes are usually held under the rules of the 2005 Inquiries Act, which provide the chair with strong legal powers to demand not only witness statements but also written evidence.
Where people fail to comply — by refusing to appear or lying under oath — legal action can be taken.
As the respected Institute of Government has argued, these powers are “critically important” in the Letby case: “With such serious allegations and the likelihood of disciplinary action and other civil claims, witnesses will probably have legal representation and will be very unlikely to co-operate without the genuine threat of legal sanction.
Only a full statutory inquiry can provide this.”
But so far, the Government has veered away from this, preferring a less rigorous set-up on the grounds that it will be more flexible and could therefore complete its business more quickly.
And it is true that in the recent past some statutory inquiries have become ridiculously long and expensive, and without the impact that justifies the time or cost.
Lord Saville’s inquiry into the Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland cost over £200million and took 12 years.
Professor Alexis Jay’s inquiry into historical sexual abuse — upgraded to a statutory inquiry after it began — cost £186million.
But there is no reason why proceedings should be delayed.
In view of the agonising seriousness of Letby’s crimes, no one will want to play legalistic games. The solemnity of the occasion will compel dignified behaviour.
And, in any case, the search for the truth is more important than the speed of legal journey.
Lucy Letby is Britain’s worst child killer and there can be no evasions about how she got away with her crimes for so long.
As Dr Dewi Evans, the prosecution’s lead medical expert at the Letby trial, said yesterday: “A non-statutory inquiry is a complete waste of time and money.”
Families have been robbed of loved ones. They cannot be robbed of answers.