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An independent inquiry will probe the circumstances that led to the murders of seven babies and the attempted murder of another six infants by a neonatal nurse at a hospital in England.
The government ordered the review, which is expected to include how managers responded to concerns raised by clinicians months before her arrest, after 33-year-old Lucy Letby was found guilty of the crimes at Manchester crown court on Friday.
At the Countess of Chester Hospital in north-west England, between June 2015 and June 2016, Letby used a range of methods to kill her victims in the hospital’s neonatal unit, injecting some with air or insulin and force-feeding others with milk.
She was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder and the jury was unable to reach verdicts on six further counts of attempted murder.
The BBC reported that the neonatal unit’s lead consultant, Dr Stephen Brearey, first raised concerns about Letby in October 2015 but managers were slow to act.
Jane Tomkinson, acting chief executive of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Following the trial of former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, the trust welcomes the announcement of an independent inquiry.”
Dr Nigel Scawn, the hospital’s medical director, said: “We are extremely sorry that these crimes were committed at our hospital.” Since Letby worked there, “we have made significant changes to our services” and “every patient . . . can have confidence in the care they will receive”, he added.
Letby’s conviction makes her one of Britain’s worst serial killers. Her crimes will draw comparisons with those of GP Harold Shipman, who was found guilty in 2000 of murdering 15 patients in his care. A subsequent inquiry found that Shipman had killed at least 215 patients over the course of 24 years.
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, sent his “deepest sympathy to all the parents and families impacted by this horrendous case”. The inquiry would “seek to ensure the parents and families . . . get the answers they need”, he added.
The government said the inquiry would “investigate the wider circumstances around what happened at the Countess of Chester Hospital, including the handling of concerns and governance”. It would also look at what actions were taken by regulators and the wider NHS, focusing on “lessons that can be learned quickly”.
Dame Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said Letby “committed appalling crimes that were a terrible betrayal of the trust placed in her”. The NHS was “fully committed to doing everything we can to prevent anything like this ever happening again”, she said, welcoming the decision to set up the independent inquiry “to help ensure we learn every possible lesson from this awful case”.
Danny Mortimer, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health organisations across the country, said health service staff had “a particular sense of shock and revulsion at the news that one of their colleagues harmed patients in their care”.
Health leaders would “welcome and support” the decision to hold a public inquiry “into the circumstances and learnings of this dreadful case”, he added.
