Missed chances to probe patient safety during Letby attack spree, inquiry told
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A number of opportunities were missed to ask more questions about patient safety during the 12-month attack spree of Lucy Letby, a NHS chief has told a public inquiry. Former neonatal nurse Letby, 35, murdered seven babies and attempted to kill seven more between June 2015 and June 2016, but during that period the Countess of Chester Hospital only flagged up three “serious incidents” to NHS England.
Giving evidence on Friday, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, said the organisation was not aware of suspicion around a particular member of staff until March 2017. Letby was moved out of the unit to non-clinical duties in June 2016 shortly after consultant paediatricians told bosses at the Countess of Chester that they feared she may be deliberately harming babies after the unexpected deaths on successive days of two triplet boys, Child O and P.
A series of independent reviews into the increased mortality were commissioned by executives as police were not called in to investigate matters until May 2017. Sir Stephen told the Thirlwall Inquiry into events surrounding Letby’s crimes that a total of 16 incidents were reported in the 12-month period to its national and reporting learning system before she was removed from the neonatal unit.
He said: “Only three of them, one at the very start of that period and two right at the end, were reported through our serious incident process – in other words were declared as serious incidents. “If more had been declared, then there would have undoubtedly been more scrutiny … it would have led to more questions, to more curiosity, during that period.
