Lucy Letby: Doctors call for more accountability of NHS managers

Letby is due to be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court tomorrow after being found guilty of the murder of seven babies, and the attempted murder of six others, while she was a nurse on duty at the Countess of Chester hospital in Chester.

Calls for more accountability of management from the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors, come as it was revealed in court that doctors’ concerns about Letby’s potential involvement with the deaths of babies to management were ignored. Doctors at the hospital were also forced by managers to apologise to Letby after making accusations against her.

The BMA has called for senior health administrators to be held accountable to a regulating body similar to the General Medical Council (GMC), which has the power to strike off doctors if they are found to have harmed patients.

Prof Phil Banfield, who chairs the BMA’s UK Council, said that there was a need for “non-clinical managers in the NHS and other health service providers to be regulated, in line with the manner in which clinical staff are by professional bodies”.

English Health Secretary Steve Barclay announced an inquiry into the murders last week, but victims’ families and MPs have criticised its remit as being “inadequate”.

Solicitors representing two of the families affected have released a statement which said: “as a non-statutory inquiry, it does not have the power to compel witnesses to provide evidence or production of documents and must rely on the goodwill of those involved to share their testimony. This is not good enough”.

Consultant paediatrician, Dr Dewi Evans, who was a key witness in Letby’s trial, has accused hospital executives of being “grossly negligent” in their response to complaints about the murderer, and has urged police to investigate the possibility of hospital management having committed corporate manslaughter.

After concerns were raised by doctors regarding Letby’s proximity to the deaths and sudden deterioration of babies at the hospital, a two-page review in May 2016 said that there was “no evidence whatsoever against [Lucy Letby] other than coincidence”.

Letby would go on to kill another two babies and attempt to murder an eighth after this document was published.

Police were only contacted in relation to the babies’ deaths two years after concerns were initially raised by doctors, who have claimed senior managers did not approach police out of concerns of damaging the hospital’s reputation.

Dr Evans said: “They were grossly negligent. I shall write to Cheshire police and ask them, from what I have heard following the end of the trial, that I believe that we should now investigate a number of managerial people in relation to issues of corporate manslaughter.

“I think this is a matter that demands an investigation into corporate manslaughter. The police should also investigate the [hospital] in relation to criminal negligence.

“Failing to act was grossly irresponsible,” he said.

A government spokesperson said: “Every woman deserves to feel confident in the care they and their baby receive, and we are working to improve safety standards in maternity and neonatal care across the country. Additional background checks are being brought in for hospital managers.”