Dr Gilby said she had spoken to Mr Chambers and Mr Harvey before Letby’s arrest, and sensed both believed the paediatricians were wrong about their concerns, and also that no evidence of deliberate harm had been found in their reviews.
Giving evidence to the Thirlwall Inquiry into the events surrounding Letby’s crimes, Dr Gilby said she expected the hospital’s executive team would be “absolutely reeling” that a staff member had been arrested on suspicion of committing multiple murders and attempted murders “under their watch”.
Dr Gilby, a former consultant in critical care, said she spoke to the neonatal unit’s clinical lead Dr Stephen Brearey, shortly after her appointment.
“He kept repeating that there was no single cause found, and I said to him ‘well it’s not for you to find the cause, you have unexpected and unexplained collapses and deaths of patients and even one of those is a cause of concern’.
Letby was moved out of the unit to non-clinical duties in June 2016, shortly after consultant paediatricians told bosses that they feared she may be deliberately harming babies, after the unexpected deaths on successive days of two triplet boys.
